What to do, what to do?
Filed Under Events | July 31, 2008
Happy 150th birthday BC!
YTV WOW Tour
July 31 – August 4th, 10 am – 6 pm, Playland @ the PNE
YTV’s truckload of WOW (Weird on Wheels) crazy entertainment lands in Vancouver for the month starting at Playland today. Chock-a-block with interactive games, activities and prizes best suited for kids from six – 12, their next stop is Science World. Click here to find where they’ll be the rest of the month: www.ytv.com/wow
Vancouver’s Farmers Market celebrates BC’s Birthday
August 2nd, 9 am – 2 pm, Trout Lake Farmers Market, 15th Avenue & Victoria Drive in the Parking Lot of Trout Lake Community Centre
The East Van Farmers market will be celebrating BC all August long. The love fest starts this Saturday with the Arila Apiary on hand making bees wax candles with a demonstration bee hive showing how bees make honey and wax: www.eatlocal.org
Powell Street Festival
August 2nd & 3rd, 11:30 am – 7 pm, Oppenheimer Park, 400 block of Powell Street
This is the Vancouver’s largest Japanese Canadian festival featuring traditional and contemporary Japanese Canadian performances of dance, martial arts and music. There is also food, crafts and children’s tent that’ll be busy with face-painting, mask-making and hat-making: www.powellstreetfestival.com
Senorita Sarita @ the Granville Island Kids Market
August 3rd, 11am, 12:30 pm, 2 pm, 1496 Cartwright Street
Senorita Sarita is back on the island with her lively, upbeat Afro-Cuban sounds that you may recognize from the Children’s Festival: www.kidsmarket.ca
Pride Parade & Festival
August 3rd, Noon – 6 pm, Sunset Beach
The parade starts at Robson and Thurlow and ends at Sunset Beach with the festival. There are floats, fun and an expected crowd of 500,000 at this must-see event celebrating equality and diversity: www.vancouverpride.ca
Granville Island BC Day Celebration & Art in the Street Festival
August 4th, 11 am – 4 pm, island-wide
The Kids Market will be hopping with giant jigsaw puzzles, dance performances and storytelling, while the island will be hopping with artists and activities: www.granvilleisland.com
Farther Afield
Festival 150
August 1st – 4th, 9 am – 11 pm, Victoria Inner Harbour
This must-not-miss serious celebration of BC’s 150th birthday includes live music from the likes of Feist and Sarah McLachlan, children’s activities, a market, historical displays and heaps more: www.bcfestival150.ca
The 18th Annual Harmony Arts Festival
August 1st – 10th, West Vancouver’s Waterfront
With ten days of free concerts including kids’ entertainers Chris Hamilton, Shé and Bobs and Lolo as well as a Kids Craft Day at the Silk Purse Art Gallery from 11 am – 3 pm on the 2nd, plus lots of arts, music and demos you’ll want to check out their site to make sure you don’t miss anything: www.harmonyarts.ca
Tsawwassen Sun Festival
August 2nd – 4th, 9 am – late Saturday & Sunday, 8 am – 4 pm on Monday, mainly at the South Delta Recreation Centre
There’ll be everything you could want in a festival including a parade, fireworks, rides, face-painting, balloons and live entertainment. Let’s hope the weather lives up to their expectations: www.shoptsawwassen.com
Brigade Days
August 2nd – 4th, 9 am – 8 pm, 23433 Mavis Avenue, Fort Langley
On August 2nd, 1858 the British Parliament passed an act to establish the colony of British Columbia, and about three months later the new governor came to Fort Langley to officially proclaim the Act and BC was born. There that’s your history lesson for the week, pull that out of your hat at a BBQ this weekend and impress everyone, but you can also celebrate BC Day at Fort Langley with live historic dramatizations, a traditional canoe brigade arrival, picnic and live concert: www.pc.gc.ca/fortlangley
Local Harvest Film Festival
August 2nd – 4th, different times, Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre, Lynn Canyon Park, 3663 Park Road, North Van
This weekend-long film fest is packed with food, workshops and films. Learn about farming, where your food comes from and how to grown your food. On BC Day you can also bring donations of home-grown produce for the Edible Garden Project . Check out their weekday programs for kids too: www.dnv.org
Bugs, Snails and Spider Trails
August 2nd, 10 am – 11:30 am, Burnaby Lake Regional Park, 6450 Deer Lake Avenue
Kids from three to five are invited to explore the world of insects, spiders and other things that creep and crawl with a bug hunt and more. $12.84 per child adult pair. Call 604.421.5225 to register and quote barcode number 157396.
Beach Hero, Spirit of the Sea & the return of White Rock’s Sandcastle Competition
Beach Hero: August 2nd 11:30 am & 1:30 pm & August 3rd, 12:30 pm, Sat the pirit of the Sea Festival, White Rock Beach
The Friends of Semiahmoo Bay Society, Georgia Straight Alliance and Burns Bog Society have banded together to create the Beach Hero camp at White Rock’s Spirit of the Sea Festival. There’ll be marine interpreted walks, a live critter touch tank, kids activities and more. White Rock will also be hopping with the return of their famous Sandcastle Competition (yeah!), and the Spirit of the Sea Festival.
Steveston Farmers and Artisans Market
August 3rd, 11 am – 4 pm, Gulf of Georgia Cannery Nat. Historic Site Parking Lot, Richmond
This ongoing Farmers market is a great destination if you want to hit Steveston over the long weekend. You’ll find fresh local produce, flowers, crafts and artwork: www.stevestoncommunitysociety.com
What with the rock slide we decided not to feature the 2008 Squamish Days Loggers Sports Festival, but if you are in (or stuck in) the ‘hood you can check it out here: www.squamishdays.ca. And if you’re hitting the road this weekend you may want to revisit our road trip week with info on car tunes the whole family can enjoy, car organizers, safe(er)bug sprays and road safety tips and ideas.
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