2009 Vancouver Official Travel Planner Guide - (Page 25) Entertainment, Arts & Culture Photography: Auditorium ©Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts; Bard on the Beach ©Bard on the Beach/David Blue The Top 10 Not-to-Miss Vancouver Events and Festivals What’s New? Cultural Olympiad Cultural Olympiad is an annual festival of arts, culture and entertainment. It celebrates the contemporary imagination through a series of three festivals of arts, culture and creativity. In 2008, leading up to the Vancouver 2010 Games, the festival launched the multi-year celebration with a dynamic, diverse program of more than 300 performances and exhibitions, created by a bold spectrum of local, national and international artists, in keeping with Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games’ (VANOC’s) objective of ensuring the community is central to the Olympic and Paralympic cultural experience. In 2009, the performances and exhibitions will take place from February 1 to March 21. vancouver2010.com 1. 2. September’s Vancouver International Fringe Festival hits the streets of Granville Island with unbridled creativity in theatre, dance, street performances and more. A hub for movie making, Vancouver hosts the Vancouver International Film Festival (September), one of the industry’s most revered events, with more than 300 works from 50 countries. PuSh International Performing Arts Festival The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is one of Vancouver’s signature events and will take place January 20–February 8, 2009. The Festival presents groundbreaking work in the live performing arts: theatre, dance, music and various hybrid forms of performance. It attracts acclaimed local, national and international artists and their work. PuSh expands the horizons of Vancouver artists and audiences with work that is visionary, genre-bending, multidisciplined, startling and original. It is a showcase of Canada’s best and an incubator of brilliant new work. pushfestival.ca 3. More than 20,000 twinkling lights transform VanDusen Botanical Gardens into a magical holiday season display during the Festival of Lights in December. 4. Sample more than 500 wines at Canada’s premier wine event — the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival — in March. 5. The Vancouver International Children’s Festival, held in May, features world-class performers from Canada and across the globe, plus plenty of hands-on activities. 6. Onstage drama mirrors a dramatic setting each May–September during Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, as favourite Shakespeare plays take to outdoor stages. 7. Also in June, the popular TD Canada Trust Vancouver International Jazz Festival brings jazz to the streets for 10 glorious days. 8. July’s Vancouver Folk Music Festival at Jericho Beach is always a big draw, bringing musicians from across cultures together for three days of music and celebration. 9. Festival Vancouver also presents a diverse collection of classical, jazz and world music performances in August. 10. The HSBC Celebration of Light takes place at the end of July/beginning of August and is a spectacle as several countries compete with awe-inspiring fireworks displays over the English Bay. See the calendar of events on page 40 for dates and more information on other great events. For an extensive calendar, visit us online at tourismvancouver.com/visitors/events.php. Attractions & Museums Get in on the Act Metro Vancouver is a theatrical delight, hosting both innovative local acts and big-budget Broadway musicals. On Granville Island, you can find productions ranging from international and Canadian drama at the Arts Club Theatre to improvisational comedy with the Vancouver TheatreSports League. The Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts provides a state-of-theart downtown Vancouver theatre venue for presentations and live entertainment. The famed Queen Elizabeth Theatre hosts large shows and Broadway musicals throughout the year. Next door, The Playhouse Theatre Company features full-scale theatrical productions. Another popular venue is the Arts Club Theatre Company’s Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, originally built in 1930 as a vaudeville house. Now it’s home to some of the hottest shows in town. For more cutting-edge theatre and dance, the Firehall Arts Centre offers some of the best. 46 Circu ©PuSh s Acts in 45 Internat M ional P inutes erform ing Art s Festival The Outdoors Is Your Stage Vancouverites love to combine culture with nature, and in summertime several performances take place in the open air. Bard on the Beach is a perennial favourite that will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2009. The event stages Shakespeare plays (recent productions included “Twelfth Night” and “King Lear”) under large, open-ended tents in Vanier Park with the sea and mountains as a backdrop. Another outdoor theatre event, Theatre Under the Stars (affectionately called TUTS), is held each summer in Stanley Park’s Malkin Bowl, where local talent brings Broadway’s best to life. Recent years’ productions have included “Annie Get Your Gun” and “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Additionally, exhilarating performances of dance by New Works bring Vancouver’s multicultural heritage to life — all under the shade of the trees on the outdoor stage at Vancouver’s favourite urban nook, Granville Island. c a l l 6 0 4 . 6 8 2 . 2 2 2 2 t o d a y f o r m o re i n f o r m a t i o n 25 http://vancouver2010.com http://tourismvancouver.com/visitors/events.php http://pushfestival.ca
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