Vancouver Pride Week kicks off Saturday July 23 and will finish off with the Pride Parade (one of North America’s largest). Drawing over half a million people to events, festivities, and the parade downtown each year, it’s one of the region’s most-anticipated celebrations.
Vancouver Pride Week
There’s much more to Pride Week than the Pride Parade and this year the calendar is packed. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the main events:
Saturday July 23 at 11:00 am
Picnic in the Park (at Stanley Park Brockton Oval). This event is youth-friendly, family-friendly.
Tuesday July 26 & Wednesday July 27 at 7:00 pm
Queer Arts Festival (at Roundhouse Community Centre & Theatre)
Thursday July 28 at 7:00 pm
Pride Movie Night (at Granville 7 Theatre)
Friday July 29 at 7:00 pm
Caya Davie Street Dance Party (in the Davie Village)
Saturday July 30 at 9:00 am
Terry Wallace Memorial Breakfast (at Bute & Davie). This event is youth-friendly, family-friendly.
Sunday July 31 at 11:00am
Sunset Beach Pride Festival. This event is youth-friendly, family-friendly.
Sunday July 31 at 12:00pm
Pride Parade This event is youth-friendly, family-friendly.
Vancouver Pride Parade 2011
Hundreds of thousands of people will line the streets of Vancouver’s West End for the colourful, celebratory, and lively Pride Parade. Starting off at Robson at Bute, the parade will head down to Denman and go all the way through English Bay to Sunset Beach. Stake out your spot on the curb early and be prepared to get up and dance, sing along, and get tons of swag thrown out by participants on floats.
Pride Week and the Pride Parade are presented by the Vancouver Pride Society, which offers programs and community support throughout the year. In 2010, their Legacy Fund benefitted AIDS Vancouver, Four Feathers Society, 411 Seniors Centre Society, Qmunity, and more.
Update During the Pride Festival and Parade post your photos to Twitter and tag them with @g_fad & @miss604 for your chance to win a g-fad pride wear kit. The winner will be drawn on Sunday at 2:00pm and will be able to visit the g-fad tent at the Pride Festival at Sunset Beach to pick up their kit.
North America Outgames
Vancouver is the second city to ever host the North America Out Games and they’ll be a large part of Pride Week this year running July 25th to July 31st. Instead of a torch relay, there are flag runners and a flag ceremony that will be held at the Vancouver Art Gallery July 25th. Flags will be run in several legs: From UBC, to Jericho Park, via paddle boat to Denman and Davie. Then from the base of Whistler Mountain to Grouse Mountain, to the Opening Ceremony at the art gallery (5:00pm to 7:30pm).
Sports competitions throughout the week at the Outgames are badminton, dance sport, eco challenge, golf, poker, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field, volleyball, a 10km run/4km walk, and the 6k vertical challenge.
The Opening Reception will then be at Club Five-Sixty and the Closing Ceremony (with Ace of Base, Dragonette, and more) will be at the Plaza of Nations July 30th.
I’d like to thank Aeden Saint, Clement C.Blaze, and Samantha Mack for having me on QueerFM this morning at the CiTR studios at UBC. They will have special coverage and 50 hours of live on-site broadcasts at various locations surrounding the OutGames.
Tori Amos is returning to Vancouver to play the Orpheum on December 13th. Performing most of her life and touring relentlessly since 1991, Rolling Stone has voted her one of the best live performers of all time.
Tori Amos’s latest release and debut on Deutsche Grammophon Night of Hunters is a 21st century song-cycle, inspired by classical music from the last 400 years.
Following the idea of the classical song-cycle, the all-new songs from Night of Hunters tell an ongoing contemporary story. Its central character is a woman ending a long relationship, allowing the listener to follow her on a journey over the course of one night to explore complex musical and emotional themes.
Tickets go on sale through this Friday at 10:00am for $39.50, $69.50 and $89.50 through Live Nation, Ticketmaster or the Rogers Wireless Box Office. In the meantime, I have a pair of tickets to give away this week. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment on this post naming a Tori Amos song (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at 9:45am this Friday, July 22, 2011.
Update The winner is Stacey (@CakeScrapps) – congratulations!
I recently visited several Circle Farm Tour stops with Tourism Langley that covered everything from turkeys to blueberry doughnuts. Three additional stops on this free, self-guided tour in Langley include the wineries. While most think of the Okanagan as BC’s wine country, these have been around for the better part of the last decade. Some are supplemented with vines on the Naramata Bench, but these local wineries deliver reds, whites, and sparkling varietals just 45 minutes away from Vancouver.
Wineries in Langley, BC
Vista D’Oro Farms & Winery
Located in South Langley overlooking Campbell Valley Park and Golden Ears Mountain Range. Stop by the new shop, pick up a bottle of wine, grab picnic fare from the kitchen (such as a cheese plate with local products, fresh baking, preserves) and sit out under the walnut trees for a picnic. Try some of their flagship walnut-fortified 2007 D’oro wine for something different.
Location: 20856 4th Ave
Website, Twitter, Facebook
Domaine de Chaberton Winery & Bacchus Bistro
Tour the 55-acre vineyard, bottling line, barrel cellars and more as you take in the full winery experience, including tastings. Have lunch or dinner at the award-winning Bacchus Bistro or bring a picnic to the winery. In 2011, Domain de Chaberton has already picked up two gold medals at the 31st annual All Canadian Wine Championships for their 2009 Bacchus Dry and 2009 Gamay Noir.
Location: 1064 – 216th Street
Website
Township 7 Vineyards & Winery
Tours, tastings, picnics, live music, art shows, and wine seminars are all hosted at Township 7. With 7 wines rated with 90 points, they have plenty of variety. This summer enjoy Wilde in the Winery with theatrical performances in the vineyard at the end of July and August, as well as Art in the Vines August 28, 2011.
Location: 21152 16th Ave
Website, Twitter
Other self-guided Circle Farm Tours in our region aside from Harrison Mills & Agassiz and Langley are Pitt Meadows & Maple Ridge, Chilliwack, and Abbotsford. All of my Circle Farm Tour posts can be found under the “Circle-Farm-Tour” tag.
Related post: Where to Pick Strawberries & Langley Circle Farm Tour
The skies broke open and showered the Lower Mainland with rain this morning and while that stopped the Whitecaps from playing their game at Empire Field, out in Surrey the Fusion Festival was a go.
Each year dozens of pavilions line Holland Park and the tents – filled with cultural displays, merchandise, music, and food – serve as shade from the sun. On a day like today, the tents were used as shelter but many braved the elements with nothing but Gore-Tex, a hat, or an umbrella.
The rain stopped every now and then giving a nice reprieve and the sun has been playing hide-and-seek all day. Luckily, there isn’t too much mud on the grass (it’s draining fairly well, I would say) and people are still coming out to experience this free annual festival filled with activities for all ages.
Leading up to the evening’s concerts, Warren Dean Flandez is on at 6:30pm tonight, Bombino at 7:30pm, Dirty Radio is on the celebration stage at 7:30pm as well, and Bedouin Soundclash will round out the evening starting at 8:45pm.
Tomorrow, explore the all-new (this year) Flavours of Surrey area that has even more food and local artisans along with the cooking demo stage. Top Chef Canada winner Dale MacKay will be on at 5:30pm and today, Vikram Vij drew the morning’s largest crowd.
Jay Sean will close out the entire festival starting at 9:00pm Sunday night on the main stage. There’s still time to check out tonight’s line-up at Holland Park in Surrey and don’t shy away from coming out tomorrow if the weather stays the same. There’s no shortage of food and pavilions to browse.
Tips:
Come hungry. Make sure you bring cash to purchase some food tickets (1 ticket = $1, and many things are priced for 1, 3, or 5 tickets). There are also ATMs on site.
Take transit. Holland Park is between Central City and King George SkyTrain stations.
Bring a chair if you don’t want to sit on the wet grass. There are some areas in front of the Celebration Stage for example that are stone, chairs are allowed there too.
Check out the activities for kids. Make a craft, play in the Toddler Zone, get a free balloon or beach ball, mingle with mascots.
We hope to see you at Fusion Festival tonight or throughout the day tomorrow. Miss604.com is proud to sponsor this event for the 4th year in a row.
Update The evening concerts drew crowds who danced through the intermittent rain.
Kytami
Warren Dean Flandez
Bombino
Dirty Radio
Bedouin Soundclash
Update July 17, 2011 John and I are heading back to Surrey today for another round at the pavilions (I’m set on having jollof rice from Ghana, cannoli from Italy, and chorizo tacos from Mexico) and great music. We’ll have more photos and updates from this FREE community festival posted throughout the day.
All photos in this post are by John Bollwitt and can be found on Flickr.
Kokanee Crankworx starts today in Whistler and will run clear through next weekend. It’s the nation’s ultimate mountain biking event with the Whistler Mountain Bike Park taking centre stage for all the action.
Be on the lookout for the
Kokanee-stealing sasquatch
Kokanee Crankworx has become the authoritative free ride festival, a supercharged magnet for the world’s best riders, the definitive domestication of dirt in the service of epic endurance, supreme flow, monster air and gravity-fuelled mountain biking. The best mountain bike athletes in the world know that when gravity beckons, you simply say, yes mistress.
This weekend opens up with a concert series, then there’s the Kokanee Aftershock nightly DJ series, the Deep Summer Photo Challenge, Red Bull Joyride at Night, and parties across the village. A full schedule of concerts, competitions, and events can be found online and all of these activities are free (except for a few parties and events in the evening, where noted on the website).
From the Dual Slalom, Canadian Open Downhill, and Teva Best Trick Showdown, to the Canadian Cheese Rolling Championships – there will be no shortage of action over the next ten days.
Kokanee will also be presenting a silent disco (tickets $10, Kokanee prizes) July 22nd and the official wrap-up party at Garibaldi Lift Co on July 23rd. I have a prize pack to give away to a reader and their mountain biking friend of choice. The prize pack includes:
2 one day Bike Park vouchers
2 passes for the Kokanee VIP Deck on Saturday July 23rd
Here’s how to enter to win the prize pack:
Leave a comment on this post naming your favourite place to ride your bike (1 entry)
Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at 10:00am Tuesday July 19, 2011. The bike park passes will be couriered to the winner this week and the Kokanee VIP passes can be picked up at the Pan Pacific in Whistler. Must be 19 years of age or older to enter and win. No purchase necessary. Please enjoy responsibly.
Update Lindsay C (@kitslove) is the winner!
