Eastside Arts Society presents the 4th edition of its newly expanded, immersive summer arts event, CREATE! Eastside Arts Festival this month. Enjoy a series of events (from doodles and music, to weaving and printing) in the Eastside Arts District, in addition to its traditional all-day outdoor festivities at Strathcona Park. You can also enter to win a prize package!
CREATE Eastside Arts Festival 2024
Dates: July 22-28, 2024
Location: Various Eastside Arts District (EAD) studios, breweries, and performance venues, and Strathcona Park
Tickets: Some free, some ticketed events. View them all online here.
Art workshops are $35 for youth/adults and $20 for flamenco and children’s workshops. Children under the age of 12 must be supervised by an adult.
The festival offers arts workshops, live music and dance performances, a beer garden, public art activations, an art shop, and inspiring opportunities for art lovers of all ages and abilities to explore and discover.
Featured Events
Community highlights include CREATE! pop-up art workshops at Off the Rail Brewing, Luppolo Brewing, and Strange Fellows Brewing from July 22-26 and studio art workshops at 1000 Parker Street, The Mergatroid Building, and The Arts Factory on July 28.
Canadian musical artist Paul Pigat will be at the Firehall Arts Centre on July 25; legendary Canadian singer songwriter Art Bergmann at the Rickshaw Theatre on July 26; there will be a roving piano and dance performance from Mascall Dance on July 26; live mural painting by Eastside Culture Crawl co-founder Richard Tetrault from July 22-26; and so much more.
On Saturday, July 27, the festival returns for a full day of festivities at Strathcona Park, with a series of outdoor art-making workshops taught by EAD artists, including: weaving, summer florals, introduction to flamenco (all abilities), crochet, charcoal drawing, and a BIPOC expressive art workshop. For the first time this year, CREATE! will partner with 604 Records and Light Organ Records to present a live music concert stage at Strathcona Park (July 27 from 2:00pm to 6:00pm), featuring Haleluya Hailu, Fur Trade, and Sarah Jane Scouten.
Artist, writer, and podcaster Nishant Jain, known as The Sneaky Artist, ‘sits in public spaces with a sketchbook and fountain pen, making secret drawings of city life.’ It was fitting that my first encounter with him took place at Robson Square.
This vibrant public space, often a bustling thoroughfare for me as I beeline through on my way home from Whitecaps matches at BC Place, set the stage for our morning meeting.
I found a seat at the lone shaded table, recently vacated by city workers on a coffee break. Settling in, I scanned the square slowly, panning like a surveillance camera, trying to spot The Sneaky Artist before he found me. It was one of those seasonably warm summer mornings in the city, where the lack of rain has created sticky film on the sidewalks and surfaces, and the pavement radiates heat by 10am.
A familiar downtown scene unfolded: the Law Courts on one side, Robson Square rink and UBC campus below, and the Vancouver Art Gallery behind me.
There was a bicycle courier on the steps thumbing through his phone, while two friends in flowy skirts sitting in direct sunlight having a lively conversation over iced coffees. On the shrub-covered hill – an island in the middle of all the concrete – sat a figure with a large sketch-pad and pencils. Everytime they looked up I thought about the words “Placed Upon the Horizon (Casting Shadows)” which is on the south facade of the gallery in front of them, and behind me.
“Rebecca?” Nishant found me and greeted me with a hug. It’s been a very long time since I met someone I had only previously chatted with on social media. He and I have been avid users of Threads, Instagram’s X alternative that launched in the summer of 2023, and connected there through Likes and Comments. The Sneaky Artist has over 333,000 followers on Instagram (and nearly 68,000 on Threads) both with the tagline “secretly drawn art of the world.”
This summer in Vancouver the Honda Celebration of Light Fireworks will included a drone show at English Bay each night July 20, 24 and 27.
Vancouver Fireworks Schedule with Drone Show
The event welcomes back the Red Bull Air Show, a spectacular pre-show performance happening on all three festival nights at 7:40pm.
At approximately 9:50pm, attendees can watch a dazzling, choreographed drone display, sponsored by the BC Honda Dealers Association. At 10:00pm each night the fireworks will begin from barges located in English Bay.
The drone show will feature 200 drones and will be conducted under a special flight operations certificate issued by Transport Canada, ensuring safety and compliance. Drones are each capable of displaying millions of colours, and will perform in tightly choreographed formations, creating complex geometric shapes, logos, and images that will dance against the night sky’s black backdrop.
Archangel Fireworks is partnering with North Star Drone Shows, a leader in drone show production across Canada, to deliver all three drone shows. North Star Drone Shows offers an impressive portfolio, having produced shows for notable events such as the NBA Draft Sizzle, LAFC Show, Paris Hilton Show, Candy Crush Show, Super Bowl Instagram Videos, NASCAR, and Caesars Hotel.
Fireworks Teams
Saturday, July 20 Portugal Team Macedos Pirotecnia
Wednesday, July 24 Malaysia Team Pyro Tact
Saturday, July 27 United Kingdom Team Pyrotex Fireworx
Music simulcasts can be heard on CFMI Rock 101. The winning team will be announced on Wednesday, July 31.
Everything is free to attend and watch, from wherever you can get a good view of English Bay and the fireworks barge. For a premium experience, you can reserve a seat with exclusive VIP and family-friendly viewing options including the Scotiabank Lounge, Inukshuk Point and the Concord Pacific Grandstand. There are also VIP private cabanas and larger group hosting patio spaces available to rent. Tickets to all three viewing areas can be purchased online.
This weekend in Metro Vancouver, Miss604 is a sponsor of the Chinatown Festival which is free on Saturday and Sunday, as well as the free performances at Burnaby’s Classical Weekend with the VSO and Vancouver Opera in Deer Lake Park. Keep cool at local spray parks and beaches, and enjoy this these events and more things to do around Vancouver:
For the last two years I have participated in the “50 Women” campaign for Options Community Services in Surrey which raised over $1.5 million for Habitat@81st, a mixed income affordable housing building with onsite supports. Its 100 units are now home to many individuals and families in the community. Now, 50 Women are at it again and this time on the Sunshine Coast.
50 women are raising $1.5 million to ensure every Sunshine Coast resident is nurtured and supported.
50 Women for Sunshine Coast Community Services Society
Sunshine Coast Community Services Society (SCCSS) is the largest community based nonprofit organization providing supportive programming and services to Sunshine Coast residents. As the organization celebrates fifty years of delivering critical community services, they need help closing the funding gap for a vital 6-storey development in the heart of Sechelt. This will help to create a program-rich community hub with safe and affordable housing for single women and women with children.
Of the estimated $34 million required for this project, SCCSS has secured 90% of the funds. The 50 Women for SCCSS aim to raise an additional $1.5 million to help with a portion of the remaining gap in funding.
For the campaign, 50 Women from across the Sunshine Coast, and beyond, have united with a common goal of supporting the health and wellbeing of vulnerable residents. Comprised of women from various professions, of all ages, and each with a unique life experience, all share a vision of contributing to an engaged, healthy, and thriving Coast.
The new building will have 35 safe, secure, and affordable housing units (the top four floors of the new 6-storey building) for single women, and women with children, who have experienced, or are vulnerable to experiencing violence. Two lower floors of the new development will introduce a community hub that provides flexible meeting spaces, food solutions, crisis response, and support and prevention programs—all in one place.
59% of children living with single parents on the Coast are living below the poverty line—that’s 1,100 children and their families, struggling every day. Single mothers, children, and women over 50 are most at risk. Often they struggle to meet the fundamental needs of safety, food, and housing.
The 50 Women for SCSS include: Linda Curtiss (Coordinator, Outreach Healthy Meal Program); Keely Halward (artist); Jennifer Oke (photographer); Deb Mealia (Retired, founding member of Yew Transition House); Jessica Silvey (Coast Salish Weaver and Fibre Artist); Susan Doyle-Ingram (CEO of Prominence Publishing, Inc); board members, volunteers, business operators, realtors, and more.
SCCSS will also be at the Sechelt Farmers and Artisans’ Markets and Gibsons Night Market this season if you have any questions or want to show your support in person:
Sechelt Farmers and Artisans’ Markets
When: Saturdays – July 6, August 10 and 31, and September 21
