Granville Island’s Winteruption returns for the eighth year February 22nd through February 24th, 2013 bringing a festival of entertainment and culture to the isle famous for its theatres, art, and market. On top of the Vive Vendredi! celebration of all things Francophone, Coastal Jazz at Performance works all week long, and the Kids Zone, you’ll find Street Eats and Beats Under the Bridge.
Edible Canada (our favourite hyper-Canadian bistro and shop) is bringing Vancouver’s food and music cultures together under one bridge for two days of food, drink, and merriment.
Running February 22nd and February 23rd from 6:00pm to 12:00am each day, the festival will have beverages from Granville Island Brewery and local wineries along with food trucks and DJs. Tickets are available now online starting at $30 (plus fees and taxes) per night or for $25 each (plus fees and taxes) if you purchase a pack of ten tickets (all guests must arrive together for the group rate). A ticket includes six bites from food trucks and two drink tokens.
Edible Canada is located #212-1551 Johnston St (across from the Net Loft and kitty corner to the market) on Granville Island. Follow them on Twitter and Facebook for more event information.
*UPDATE* The lineups have now been announced: EATS
Le Tigre
Mogu
Fresh Local Wild
Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck
Re-Up BBQ
Varinicey Pakoras SIPS
Granville Island Brewing
Sumac Ridge Wines BEATS
DJ Freelance (Friday & Saturday night)
Kosta Sax (Friday night 8pm-11pm)
Pher Percussionist (Friday night 8pm-11pm)
Buddha Sax (Saturday night 8pm-11pm)
Nimal Percussionist (Saturday night 8pm – 11pm)
To celebrate BC’s first Family Day holiday, I turned up some old time family photos in the Vancouver Public Library‘s archives. Photographer Philip Timms, whose photos often grace the pages of this site, features his family in many of his photos making them a top hit in my archives searches. Having picnics, hanging out at Stanley Park’s beaches, eating dinner and playing music together, these century-old images provide a glimpse at a quintessential Vancouver family.
(Left) 1901: P. Timms’ residence. VPL Number: 7625. Photographer: Philip Timms.
(Right) Date unknown: Philip Timms (back row, right) with family members. VPL Number: 19058.
1904: Family picnic at Second Beach. VPL Number: 7266. Photographer: Philip Timms.
1905: Family and friends on Dominion Day. VPL Number: 7236. Photographer: Philip Timms.
1906: Philip Timms’ family. VPL Number: 7115. Photographer: Philip Timms.
1908: Family and friends at Third Beach. VPL Number: 7288. Photographer: Philip Timms.
1920s: “Timms Family Orchestra”. VPL Number: 19442. Photographer: Philip Timms.
1931: Timms family camping trip. VPL Number: 19215.
Photographer: Philip Timms.
Date: 1931
Date Unknown: Timms family gathered at the table for a meal. VPL Number: 19431.
Photographer: Philip Timms.
Think you can make a mean cupcake? Then bring your best recipe, pastry bags, and unique ingredients to the Vancouver Cupcake Throwdown for validation. The local cupcake competition returns on Wednesday, February 27th, 2013 and if you’re not up for competing, you can certainly attend to enjoy all of the frosted and buttercream goodness.
Admission to the event, taking place at Fortune Sound Club, is $10 (plus fees) and they include four tasting tickets and a ballot to vote for your favourite cupcakes in a number of categories. Proceeds will go to the Friends of Raincity Housing, Five Star Footy Club, and Leaky Heaven Youth. The evening will be emceed by Erica Sigurdson with music from DJ Hebegebe.
Tickets are on sale now online and if you want to volunteer or sign up as a competitor/baker, email Stephanie (vancouver.cupcake.throwdown[at]gmail.com). Cupcakes are not baked on site. Amateur and professional bakers welcome.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the parade, it will be bigger than ever this year with marching bands, cultural dance troupes, lion dancers, community groups, the Vancouver Police Department Motorcycle Drill Team, and over 60 other entries bringing together 3,000 participants for an estimated 50,000 spectators. Festivities will kick off earlier as well with the parade setting out at 11:00am, taking 2.5 hours to complete.
Parade Route
The 1.3km parade route has been adjusted for 2013 to accomodate more participants. It will start out at the Millenium Gate on Pender (between Shanghai Alley and Taylor Street) and proceed east along Pender, turning south on Gore, west on Keefer, then dispersing at Keefer and Taylor.
TV Broadcast
If you can’t make it out to the parade, you can watch delayed coverage on Shaw Multicultural Channel, Shaw TV, and Omni later that day and the following weekend. Check local listings for exact times.
Post-Parade Lion Dances
Following the parade there will be lion dances throughout Chinatown. The lions will perform a celebrative dance at each participating shop to bring good luck and prosperity from approximately 2:00pm to 4:00pm.
The Cultural Fair and Chinatown Spring Festival will take place on Saturday, February 16 and Sunday, February 17, 2013 at the Sun Yat-Sen Plaza (50 East Pender). This event is free and open to all. It will feature multicultural performances, a lion dance grande finale, martial arts demonstrations and more. Stop by between 1:00pm and 4:00pm on Saturday and between 2:00pm and 4:00pm on Sunday.
Travel vloggers eat your hearts out! Back in 1936 James A. FitzPatrick presented a series of newsreels in fantastic new Technicolor called Traveltalks which included profiles of Victoria and Vancouver. Most of Fitzpatrick’s Traveltalks were produced by MGM and featured over a hundred destinations, from Motoring in Mexico (1943) and Chicago the Beautiful (1948) to Over The Seas to Borneo (1932) and Rural Sweden (1938).
Vancouver’s segment begins at around the 5:30 mark.
After completing training in the dramatic arts, [FitzPatrick] worked for a while as a journalist. In 1925 he entered films and specialized throughout his career in travel documentaries. Besides directing, he also wrote, produced, and narrated many of his films. MGM distributed a series of his travel films under the umbrella titles “Fitzpatrick Traveltalks” and “The Voice of the Globe”, as did Paramount as “Vistavision Visits.” The hallmarks of Fitzpatrick’s films were Technicolor photography and stolidity. [Source: IMDB]
In the reel, Vancouver is a budding city of 350,000 inhabitants with “one of the finest harbours in the world”. The Marine Building and the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver dominate the skyline, and The Great Fire was referenced as an event that took place a mere 70 years before the film.
1931. VPL Number: 4260. Photographer: Leonard Frank.
“By a strange twist of fate therefor, Vancouver – the great lumber port of the Northwest – has fewer wooden buildings than any other city of its size in the Dominion of Canada.”
It’s a quick segment but it’s fascinating to see the city, in colour, at that time – including a moving shot of the same view I have posted here (right).
Credit for this find goes to Steffani Cameron, who recently started up the Victoria-based blog Van Isle Style and profiled Victoria in 1936: MGM Traveltalk Newsreel.
