A new year is here as colder temperatures creep in and a hot chocolate at the Robson Square Ice Rink becomes a staple. Once the Christmas trees are recycled, settle in for a month of performing arts festivals, wedding fairs, and delicious dining events. This event is updated several times a week so you can send in your own event listing, or a recommendation, anytime by email.
January Events in Metro Vancouver
Jump to: Friday, January 2nd to Sunday, January 4th, 2014
Jump to: Monday, January 5th to Sunday, January 11th, 2014
Jump to: Monday, January 12th to Sunday, January 18th, 2014
Jump to: Monday, January 19th to Sunday, January 25th, 2014
Jump to: Monday, January 26th to Saturday, January 31st, 2014
Multi-Day Events
Events that run for longer than three days in a row are highlighted in green below.
Friday, January 2, 2015
Ellie King’s Sleeping Beauty
Film Screening at the VIFF Theatre: The Vancouver Asahi
Bon Red at the Biltmore
Surrey’s Winter Ice Palace in Cloverdale
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily at Jericho Arts
Festival of Lights at VanDusen Garden
Bright Nights in Stanley Park Christmas Train
Canyon Lights at Capilano Suspension Bridge
Free Skating at Robson Square Ice Rink
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Christmas Tree Chipping Events: Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, New Westminster, North Shore
Ellie King’s Sleeping Beauty
Winter Farmers Market at Nat Bailey
Surrey’s Winter Ice Palace in Cloverdale
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily at Jericho Arts
Festival of Lights at VanDusen Garden
Bright Nights in Stanley Park Christmas Train
Canyon Lights at Capilano Suspension Bridge
Free Skating at Robson Square Ice Rink
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Christmas Tree Chipping Events: Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, New Westminster, North Shore
My Dream Wedding Show
Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen: Twelfth Night
Surrey’s Winter Ice Palace in Cloverdale
Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily at Jericho Arts
Festival of Lights at VanDusen Garden
Bright Nights in Stanley Park Christmas Train
Free Skating at Robson Square Ice Rink Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
The Rio Theatre is serving up a blend of cult favourites, horror, and 90s essentials for January’s Friday Late Night series. These 19+ screenings can be complimented with a beverage from the theatre’s full service bar as you enjoy a night out with friends. Tickets are available online in advance or at the door for $8 or $6 if you come in costume for the midnight shows.
Friday Late Night Movies at the Rio Theatre
Friday, January 2, 2015
THE BIG LEBOWSKI
The Coen brothers and their agreeable cast make more fun than sense with this scattered farce about a pothead bowler who is mistaken for a deadbeat philanthropist and drawn into a cluster of kidnapers, nihilists, porn mobsters and Busby Berkeley beauties.
Friday, January 9, 2015
THE THING
Scientists in the Antarctic are confronted by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of the people that it kills. Double Bill with Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining at 9:00pm.
THE SHINING
Based on the novel THE SHINING by Stephen King, Stanley Kubrick’s work is regarded as a work of true cinematic genius. Featuring remarkable performances from a solid cast (Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers), THE SHINING is best enjoyed on the big screen. (If you’ve seen it before then you know what we’re talking about, and if you haven’t had the big screen treatment yet – you’re missing out)
Friday, January 16, 2015
EMPIRE RECORDS
The hilariously adorable 90s cult favourite EMPIRE RECORDS is getting the Friday Late Night Movie treatment on Friday, January 16. Featuring a cast of all-stars (before they were all stars!) including Liv Tyler, Anthony LaPaglia, Renee Zellwegger, Ethan Embry, Robin Tunney, Debi Mazar Rory Cochrane and more in a sweet and funny ensemble film set in one of those independent stores that used to sell something called “records.”
Friday, January 23, 2015
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 1 and 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) A quartet of mutated humanoid turtles clash with an uprising criminal gang of ninjas. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) The Turtles and the Shredder battle once again, this time for the last cannister of the ooze that created the Turtles, which Shredder wants to create an army of new mutants.
Friday, January 30, 2015
BRING IT ON
The Toro cheerleading squad from Rancho Carne High School in San Diego has got spirit, spunk, sass and a killer routine that’s sure to land them the national championship trophy for the sixth year in a row. But for newly-elected team captain (Kirsten Dunst), the Toros’ road to total cheer glory takes a shady turn when she discovers that their perfectly-choreographed routines were in fact stolen. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, and Gabrielle Union.
The Rio Theatre is an independent art and movie house located at 1660 West Broadway, at Commercial Drive, and is easily accessible by transit. Follow along on Facebook and Twitter for more film screenings, comedy showcases, and special event information.
Miss604 is a media partner of the Rio’s Late Night Movie series.
As a proud sponsor of the 2015 YWCA Women of Distinction Awards, and having been a sponsor since 2010, I get to witness an amazing awards night once a year where extraordinary women from around Metro Vancouver are celebrated for their contributions to their industries and their communities. With the deadline for nominations closing on January 22nd, I thought it would be fun to look at just a few women from Vancouver’s history who were also quite remarkable:
6 Awesome Women in Vancouver History
Helena Rose Gutteridge organized the BC Women’s Suffrage League. She also took a leading role in the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council and became a champion of affordable housing. In 1937, she was elected Vancouver’s first woman alderman.
1937: Mayor George C. Miller administers the oath of office to Vancouver’s first alderwoman Miss Helena Rose Gutteridge. Photograph attributed to D’Arcy. Archives# Port P276.1
Sara Ann McLagan was the first woman telegrapher in BC — Chuck Davis believed she was the first in Canada too — and at just 14 years old she took over the New Westminster telegraph station. In 1884 she married John McLagan, founder and editor of the Vancouver Daily World. When he died in 1901, and she became the first woman publisher of a daily newspaper in Canada. She was also managing editor, editorial writer, proof reader and occasional reporter.
Sister Frances
Sister Frances Redmond, who was referred to as “Vancouver’s little Florence Nightingale”, founded one of Vancouver’s earliest hospitals, St. Luke’s Home on the 300 block of East Cordova Street. When she received the “Good Citizenship Medal” from the City of Vancouver in 1929 one journalist wrote: “There are no women in British Columbia braver and more devoted to their calling than Sister Frances. She is a very bright, cheery, charitable lady, and makes hosts of friends where she is known.”
1957: Aldermen Don McTaggart, J.W. Cornett,
George Cunningham, Anna Sprott. VPL# 42553.
Province Newspaper Photo.
Anna Sprott
On top of her business, education, and radio history, Anna Sprott (Sprott-Shaw Wireless and Radio School, Sprott-Shaw Community College) ran for Vancouver City Council in 1949 and was elected on her first try. She would serve on council longer than any woman in Vancouver history (1949-1959), winning re-election for three terms. Anna was also the first woman to serve as acting mayor of Vancouver.
1951 Naval Portrait of Doreen Patterson Reitsma
Doreen Reitsma
Doreen Reitsma was the first woman from BC to enter Canada’s postwar Navy, thanks to the encouragement of Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest-serving First Lady of the United States.
On January 26, 1955, Doreen helped inspire Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent and his cabinet to create a permanent and fully integrated regular force for women in the Royal Canadian Navy. This decision — the first in the Commonwealth — paved the way for thousands of Canadian women to follow in her footsteps.
E. Pauline Johnson
Pauline Johnson was the child of a Mohawk chief and an Englishwoman and as a writer and poet, she traveled across North America and England giving readings of her work and performing on stage. She retired to Vancouver and continued to write for the Province basing her articles on stories shared by her friend Chief Joe Capilano of the Squamish people of North Vancouver. She also gave Lost Lagoon its name and inspired Margaret Atwood to write a libretto for an opera. After she succumbed to breast cancer in 1913, Vancouver mourned Pauline Johnson’s death by declaring the day a civic holiday.
A few more honourable mentions:
Mary Ellen Smith was the first female BC MLA and the first woman cabinet minister in the British Empire. In 1917 there were many firsts for women in BC. Helen McGill became the first woman to be appointed a judge of the juvenile court, and Evlyn Farris became the first woman on the UBC Board of Governors and would serve for more than 20 years. [Source]
Aside from the White Rock Polar Bear Swim and the 95th annual event in English Bay, you ring in the new year with a chilly dip in Deep Cove during the annual Penguin Plunge at Panorama Park.
Polar Bear Swim: North Vancouver
The Penguin Plunge is January 1, 2015 at Panorama Park at Deep Cove. Festivities run from 12:30pm to 3:00pm with the plunge promptly taking place at 2:00pm.
There will be food and refreshments, and live music with Gary Comeau and the Voodoo Allstars. Pledge forms are available online and proceeds will benefit North Shore Rescue.
Vancouverites tend to flock to several warm-weather destinations south of the border and Palm Springs is certainly one of the popular choices. John and I recently had the opportunity to get away, thanks to Rogers Communications, and the Palm Desert was calling our name. Resort spas, cocktails, brunch, and shopping were all on our list of things to enjoy but at the very top was a nature walk (or two) since near home our favourite activity is to take an afternoon walk through the inner trail network of Stanley Park, connecting with the place around us. When visiting Palm Springs, there are many hiking options but one of the most celebrated and world renowned is Joshua Tree National Park.
It’s a 45 minute drive from Palm Springs to the Visitor Centre in Yucca Valley. We popped in there to grab a map and to talk to park staff about their recommendations for first-timers to the area. They get all levels of explorers in there, from young families with strollers to climbers with ropes and carabiners.
Background: Humans have occupied the area encompassed by Joshua Tree National Park‘s nearly 800,000 acres for at least 5,000 years. The first group known to inhabit the area was the Pinto Culture, followed by the Serrano, the Chemehuevi, and the Cahuilla. In the 1800s cattlemen drove their cows into the area for the ample grass available at the time and built water impoundments for them. Miners dug tunnels through the earth looking for gold and made tracks across the desert with their trucks. Homesteaders began filing claims in the 1900s. The park protects 501 archeological sites, 88 historic structures, 19 cultural landscapes, and houses 123,253 items in its museum collections. After the area became a national monument in 1936, local and regional residents were the primary park visitors. Joshua Tree was elevated from national monument to national park status in 1994.
The Hidden Valley Trail and the Barker Dam Trail (1 – 1.3 miles each) were the top picks for us, which were both hour-long nature walk loops. From there, you could escalate your walk and do a 3 mile – 7 mile hike, with elevation gains of 300 ft. We stuck with the two trail loops suggestions and made our way up the road to the park entrance to pay our day pass fee ($15, which was valid for 6 days).
Joshua Tree National Park Photowalk
Some tips when visiting Joshua Tree:
- Stop into the Visitor Centre. Even if you did research online like I did, talking to park staff was very helpful.
- Come prepared for any type of weather. We were ready for a scorching afternoon in the sun (sunscreen, hats, water) but once we reached the trail it was only 10C in the shade so we had to bundle up. Temperature changes of up to 40 degrees within 24 hours are not uncommon.
- Dogs are allowed in the park but they must be on a leash at all times and cannot be more than 100 feet from a road, picnic area, or campground.
- Prepare for all kinds of terrain. Some parts of the trails look wide and flat but they are also tough to walk on, the sand is loose and soft like walking on a beach. At other times you’ll be climbing up and down large boulders.
For more information, follow Joshua Tree National Park on Twitter and Facebook, and check out all of my travel photos on Flickr and Instagram @Miss604.
