The long summer season is here and I hope everyone has a great summer planned! Below is a sampling of events to check out. Whatever your plans, make the most of it! Create some amazing summer memories and I’ll see you in late August!
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22nd Vancouver Chinatown Festival
July 13–14, 12 noon–6 p.m.
www.vancouver-chinatown.com/festival
The Vancouver Chinatown Festival is a free two-day event featuring a variety of cultural activities and performances. Highlights include live stage performances such as ethnic cultural dances, Taiko drumming and musical acts, as well as a new children’s theatre with lion dance demonstrations, princess sing-alongs and magic shows. The Kids Corner offers interactive workshops, carnival games and face painting, while the Cultural Diversity Corner features activities like lantern making, Chinese fan making and traditional games. Visitors can also enjoy guided tours of Chinatown, an artisan’s market, food trucks and meet the festival mascot, VanVan.
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Sunday Afternoon Salsa at Robson Square
Sundays from July 14–Aug. 18 (except Aug. 4)
Sunday Afternoon Salsa is an annual summer festival (since 2006) of free outdoor Salsa dances held at Robson Square in downtown Vancouver during the summer months of July and August. Try the free beginner dance lesson (either Salsa or Bachata) at 3 p.m., watch the dance performances at 5 p.m. or just check out the social dancing throughout the afternoon and see how much fun it is!
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The Tempest Project
July 17–22
www.musiconmain.ca/event/the-tempest-project
Inspired by Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Music on Main’s The Tempest Project is a music-filled journey through a theatre enveloped in sound and light. Explore themes of revenge and forgiveness, love, magic, freedom and betrayal as you plunge into this musically audacious production, which stands as a poetic response to universal challenges. Led through the Vancouver Playhouse, audiences embark on a roving musical adventure, witnessing performances in unexpected places. Musicians weave intricate melodies into a rich musical fabric filled with mystery and beauty. As new spaces and sounds are discovered, new depths of meaning unfold.
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Fourth Annual CREATE! Eastside Arts Festival
July 22–28
The 4th annual CREATE! Eastside Arts Festival is a week-long, exciting and immersive arts event this summer, bringing together local artists and the community to explore, learn and create in Strathcona Park, and in pop up locations such as breweries, venues and art studios across the Eastside Arts District. This innovative festival offers arts workshops, live music performances, a beer garden, public art activations, an art shop and many more opportunities for art lovers of all ages and abilities to experience!
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Disability Tour Bus
Available to stream July 24
https://realwheels.ca/disability-tour-bus
Realwheels Theatre is excited to announce their new production, Disability Tour Bus, will be released as a radio play podcast and available for streaming on July 17 at realwheels.ca. The podcast follows Shiloh, a young wheelchair-user, as they navigate their first day as a guide for “Funcouver Bus Tours.” Working alongside longtime employee and relentless dad-joker, Hugh, Shiloh struggles to stick to the “Funcouver” script when so much of “Canada’s most wheelchair-accessible city” is still so incredibly inaccessible. People and politics collide until a new passenger, Tess, comes aboard and offers unexpected common ground. The tour must go on! Because there’s someone special waiting for Tess at the end. At least she hopes there is.
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2024 Summer Festival: Bach Untamed
July 25–Aug. 8
www.earlymusic.bc.ca/tickets/2024-summer-festival-bach-untamed
The 2024 Summer Festival: Bach Untamed invites you to discover new arrangements of Bach’s music mixed with distant vocal traditions. With signature pieces like the Monteverdi Vespers of 1610 and Bach motets alongside musical traditions from India and the Middle East, the 2024 Festival has something for everyone.
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Slip Slap Trip Wack
July 26–28, 5–8 p.m.
www.vancouverpresents.com/events/slip-slap-trip-wack
The family-friendly work brings to life the imaginative worlds of 8–12-year-olds in a unique collaboration between the artists of Leaky Heaven and youth who live near the studio at the Russian Hall. The performance seats audience members on a 360-degree rotating device, which allows them to both watch and volunteer to perform in the sketches. This performance takes inspiration from Our Gang, a series of short comedic films from the 1920s that later became known as The Little Rascals. The participatory performance incorporates gags and pranks that pull from centuries-old vaudeville routines and tropes. The youth-developed project offers a fresh spin on comedy that allows kids to be kids and adults to be reminded of the joy of play.
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22nd Annual Korean Culture Heritage Festival
Aug. 3, 10:30 a.m.–7 p.m.
Burnaby’s Swangard Stadium will host the 22nd Annual Korean Culture Heritage Festival on Aug. 3. There will be live music, vendors, food booths and more celebrating all things Korean! Check out the festival’s website for photos of past festival events and more information.
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Third Annual BC Dumpling Festival
Aug. 10, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.
The Asian Arts and Culture Society will present the Third Annual BC Dumpling Festival in the Tri-Cities. This festival is a celebration of the diverse community we live in and brings together families, friends, neighbours, community organizations and businesses from different cultures to share food, entertainment and laughter. It is a multicultural, family-friendly event that will showcase dumplings from different cultures!
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African Descent Festival
Aug. 10–11
www.africandescentfestival.com
The African Descent Festival celebrates African and African Descent culture through music, art, crafts and food. Established in 2015 by Yasin Kiraga M, it has grown to be Western Canada’s largest festival for people of African descent. The event features live performances, cultural displays and a marketplace for African goods. The festival aims to foster community, promote local talents and highlight the historical and cultural contributions of the African Descent community. Check out their website for an event schedule.
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Vancouver International Music Festival
Aug. 20–25
www.vancouvercompetition.com/vimf
The 2024 Vancouver International Music Festival will be held in-person from Aug. 20–25 at the VSO School of Music in Vancouver, featuring world-renowned guests for concerts, masterclasses and performance classes for students. The festival includes various instrumental categories across four age groups, open to musicians worldwide, with a gala concert on Aug. 25 showcasing top-level students. Concerto performances in the Piano, Violin and Cello categories will feature the orchestra part played by a second piano.
