The Bright Nights in Stanley Park Christmas Train will once again be sounding its whistle and chugging through the sparkling magically-lit forest of Stanley Park this Christmas. Kids of all ages will be singing along to their favourite carols as they take in the whimsical displays along their ride.
Bright Nights in Stanley Park Christmas Train
Where: Stanley Park When:Delayed start to Dec 8th to January 1, 2021 (closed Christmas Day) Tickets:Available online now for $10 plus fees for all age groups. Ages 2 abnd under are FREE.
Bright Nights is excited to welcome you back to a nostalgic and much loved family event to help create a bright Christmas memory in a very challenging time. They have focused their efforts on making sure the train will be a fun, happy and safe experience for all.
The experience will be a bit different this year… there will be no plaza lights and Santa won’t be visiting. All the decorating efforts will be concentrated on the train ride itsellf so all those same memories of riding the train through countless twinkling lights will still be there!
Stop and say hi to the fire fighter volunteers who will be out in support of the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund despite taking the year off from their traditional set-up. They’ll be meeting and greeting from a safe distance and collecting donations on behalf of the Burn Fund to benefit burn survivors and their families.
Safety Measures and Guidelines
Masks are mandatory at all times onsite and on board the train. Children 2 and under are exempted. Disposable masks will be provided to those guests who have forgotten to bring their own.
Please do not attend this event if you are unwell. Contact TicketLeader to obtain a refund for your ticket(s).
Please arrive at front gate 30 minutes before your scheduled ride to join the queue for your train. Only ticketholders for the next train will be permitted to join the queue. Be prepared to enter the site once the preceding train has boarded and the station is clear. All ticketholders for a specific train enter the site as a group. Latecomers may not be accommodated due to capacity restrictions.
Any visitors without valid tickets will not be admitted. Tickets are not available on site.
There is a one way flow through the site, separate entrance and exits and no re-entry privileges. Please follow the directional arrows through the site to the train station.
Have your pre-printed tickets or the PDFs on your mobile devices open to the barcodes for contactless scanning. Our staff cannot assist with locating the tickets on your devices.
All benches are separated by Plexiglas. Passengers are required to sanitize their hands prior to boarding. Hand sanitizer stations are located at the front entrance and train station.
Free event parking is in effect after 3:00pm daily. Follow Bright Nights in Stanley Park on Facebook for more information.
The ultimate drive-through fair experience this summer is shifting into the holiday season and becoming PNEWinterLights, a Magical Journey to Santa.
PNE WinterLights
When:December 11 – 13 and 17 – 23, 2020 Extended until January 3, 2021. Additional dates go on sale at 10:00am, Wednesday, December 16. Limited additional tickets to other dates will be released as well.
Where: PNE Gate 9 – east of Playland, off Bridgeway Street
Tickets:Available online now (carload of four or less $39, five or more $49). Tickets must be purchased for a specific day and time slot.
Buckle up for this safe, holiday experience that you can enjoy with your family from the warmth of your car along a two-kilometre route. You will be transported through nine enchanted lands filled with glowing lights in your mission to discover Santa, with special characters and festive performers to help you along your way.
The Merry & Bright Forest will be lit up in dazzling colours with the musical sounds of your favourite Christmas songs so you can join in on the CAROL-oke.
In Polar North you’ll feel the chill of the iceberg cave, igloos, polar bears, seals and penguins. The Teddy Bear Brigade will bring Dreamland to life along with a magical Pegasus and Unicorn. The 50-foot purple Christmas tree will show you the way to Santa and his dancing elves in Candy Cane Lane.
Christmas Toy Drop
Ahead of WinterLights, make a donation at the drive-through Christmas Top Drop at PNE Gate 14, west of Playland on Hastings. It will be open November 12 from 6:00am to 6:00pm and November 13, 2020 from 6:00am to 12:00pm. Bring a new, unwrapped toy and it will be donated to the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau.
Science World will livestream its annual Girls and STEAM event on Saturday, November 7, 2020. This is a free, half-day Symposium with the aim of preparing British Columbia’s youth for the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art + Design, Math) heavy job landscape of the future.The event will be opened by keynote speaker Dr. Bonnie Henry, BC’s provincial health officer, with closing words by marine biologist Dr. Sarika Cullis-Suzuki.
Girls and STEAM Event
Where: Online When: Saturday, November 7, 2020 from 9:00am to 11:30am Registration: FREE! Book your spot online now
With Canada facing a major gap in gender diversity in STEAM careers, Girls and STEAM endeavours to inspire, engage and empower girls to pursue research-focused and technical careers by connecting them with female professionals and learning opportunities in these fields.
Dr. Bonnie Henry has been one of many famous faces of Science World’s “The World Needs More Nerds” campaign and was asked to share her message with the girls, given her notable leadership navigating the province through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is important for young people to see and hear about the many opportunities within STEAM that can bring their passions and interests to life,” says Dr. Henry. “I look forward to sharing my journey and hopefully to inspire these girls to be the STEAM leaders of tomorrow.”
Dr. Henry will give her keynote address live in the Science Theatre to those onsite and a Q&A will follow with participating questions from online participants and those in the theatre.
Online participants will also receive exclusive advance access to specialized STEAM content leading up to the event; access to livestreams on the day of the event; and access to Tech-Up, an online coding, computational thinking and digital skills workshop following Girls and STEAM.
On the day of the event, there will be two workshops:
BCIT School of Construction and the Environment: How can engineering benefit society? Explore the many sub-disciplines that go into building major infrastructure projects with Civil Engineering faculty Phyllis Chong, M.A.Sc., P.Eng.
Genome BC: Solve an outbreak with us! Learn to solve a simulated outbreak scenario using the same types of data and tools that real epidemiologists use to trace bacterial and viral outbreaks like COVID-19.
Previously, the Symposium hosted 300 girls ages 11-13 onsite at Science World and event registration would be full within minutes. Due to COVID-19, the event is going online with a greater capacity able to participate. There will be a small number of girls onsite from underserved communities at Science World in order to maintain physical distancing and safety measures.
It’s been a year like no other so an online festival comprised of diverse music and rich visuals sounds like a real treat! The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra’s annual Global Soundscapes Festival has been re-imagined as a series of 16 brand new virtuoso filmed performances.
Performed by VICO musicians and some of Vancouver’s finest chamber ensembles (Orchid Ensemble, Silk Road Music, Vashaan Ensemble, and others), the videos will be released online throughout the month of November.
Global Soundscapes Festival
When: Weekly release of videos throughout November Tickets: Free! Just look up the performance page here
The Global Soundscapes Festival is a rich feast of sound and rhythm, celebrating the intersection of Canadian cultures with musical traditions from all over the world.
The videos, live performances filmed on multiple cameras in an intimate chamber setting, offer rare, close-up views of instruments that VICO audiences normally only see from a distance on the concert stage: Chinese erhu, pipa, zheng, dizi, dadi, guanzi; Persian santur, oud, kamanche, ney; violin, cello, guitar, piano, oboe, clarinet, bassoon; kiskosi (Native American flute); and percussion from around the globe.
“The overarching statement we hope to make is: We are here… and we are here together!”
VICO Artistic Director Mark Armanini
The sound, recorded on vintage analogue audio equipment, ensures that the unique colours of each instrument are clear and present, offering a compelling visual and aural concert experience for every viewer. Videographer Kerry Phillips has interspersed footage of gorgeous Vancouver and BC landscapes, rooting the music in the vibrant city and province that produced it.
The featured repertoire will juxtapose traditional music from world cultures with contemporary intercultural compositions by Canadian composers, including Mark Armanini, Qinglin Bruce Bai, Moshe Denburg, Saina Khaledi, Qiu Xia He & André Thibault, Anthony McNab, John Oliver, Parmela Attariwala, Ali Razmi, Lan Tung, and Jin Zhang.
The Chutzpah! Festival returns with an exciting lineup of performances November 21-28, 2020, all available online, with special opportunities to attend intimate shows live streamed from the stage of the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre.
20th Annual Chutzpah! Festival
Tickets: Starting at $18 (plus applicable fees and service charges), available online or by phone at (604) 257-5145.
The Chutzpah! Festival celebrates its 20th milestone year of presenting Vancouver audiences with new and exciting, critically acclaimed artists from all over the world working in comedy, music, theatre and dance.
This will be the first Festival presented in a digital format, and the first helmed by new Artistic Managing Director, Jessica Mann Gutteridge. Artists will present work from the U.K., Israel, U.S.A., and Canada.
The lineup will include concerts, comedy, new dance works, and previews of theatre works-in-progress, paired with stimulating conversations and opportunities to interact with creative artists. Audiences will have the opportunity to attend special live music, dance and comedy performances, with safety protocols in place, or to alternately enjoy simulcasts from the comfort of their own homes.
Chutzpah! Festival Lineup
Comedy: Iris Bahr Festival Host (daily) Live Streaming November 26, 2020 at 7:00pm
Comedy: The El-Salomons Norman Rothstein Theatre and Live Stream November 28 (Festival Closing) at 7:00pm Joined by local comedians (live at the Norman Rothstein Theatre) with El-Salomons (live streaming from Brooklyn).
Theatre: Shtumer Shabes (Silent Sabbath) by Playwright Rokhl Kafrissen Live Stream November 22 at 6:00pm
Theatre: Old Friends by Playwright Tamara Micner Live Streaming November 22 at 12:00pm
Music: Ben Caplan Live Streaming November 21 at 7:00pm
Music: Guy Mintus Live Streaming November 24 at 7:00pm
Dance: Ella Rothschild / Israel ‘s Suzanne Dellal Centre, Tel Aviv Dance Live Stream November 23 at 7:00pm
Dance/Music: Idan Cohen / Ne. Sans opera and dance Norman Rothstein Theatre or Live Stream November 25 at 7:00pm
Win Tickets
I have two tickets to give away to the live stream of The El-Salomons, who will close out the festival on November 28th.
The El-Salomons, photo by Mike Bryck
The El-Salomons are a married Jewish-Palestinian lesbian comedy couple (Jess Salomon & Eman El-Husseini) who after years of performing solo decided to add yet another challenge to their relationship: A duo act! Now they tell jokes about one another, in front each other. A sacrifice they make for the fans. Jess and Eman mix jokes and stories inspired by the politics of their relationship with observational humour about love in general. Jess Salomon ( The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon ) and Eman El-Husseini ( Just for Laughs ) met and fell in love at a comedy club in Montreal a decade ago. After just one year of performing together this hilarious couple recorded a comedy special at the prestigious Just for Laughs Festival, now available in Canada on Crave TV.
Here’s how you can enter to win:
Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
Click below to post an entry on Twitter
[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win tickets to watch @theElSalomons at the 20th annual @ChutzpahFest #chutzpahfestival http://ow.ly/Vbyh50CcLNe” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]
I will draw two winners at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Friday, November 13, 2020. UPDATE The winner is Sheryl!
