CityFood Events presents the 8th annual Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival, partnering with some of the city’s best chocolatiers, pastry shops, bakeries, cafes, gelato and ice cream makers to offer up delicious drinks and snacks that will warm you up this season.
Vancover Hot Chocolate Festival
When: January 20th to February 14th, 2018 Where: Various locations throughout the city
Confirmed Participants
Confirmed locations are offering up 75 flavours of hot chocolate! How about dark Chocolate, espresso and steamed milk topped with vanilla cream and chocolate sprinkles at 49th Parallel, or carrot cake hot chocolate with Valrhona Dubey 32% blonde chocolate, warm spice and carrot crema from Bel Cafe? Then there’s vegan, salted, almond, dark hot chocolate with pink peppercorns served with Koko Monk’s signature Vegan Root Vegetable Dark Chocolate Bark, or a 49% hot chocolate with chestnut served with a chestnut and coconut rum snowball truffle from Thomas Haas?
Bel Café
Bella Gelateria
Cartems Donuts
Chez Christophe
Chocolate Arts
Diva at the Met
Earnest Ice Cream
East Van Roasters
Eternal Abundance
Gem Chocolates
La Glace
Terra Breads
Swiss Bakery
Butter Baked Goods
49th Parallel Coffee Roasters
Baggio Gelateria and Pizzeria
Glenburn Soda Fountain & Confectionery
Doughgirls Comfort Kitchen and Bakeshop
James’ Gelato at Mahony & Sons
Koko Monk Chocolates
Mink Chocolates
Mon Paris Patisserie
Soirette Macrons & Tea
Temper Chocolate & Pastry
Thierry Chocolaterie Patisserie Cafe
Thomas Haas Chocolates
Trafiq Cafe and Bakery
Partner Charities
The Downtown Eastside Women’s Job Training Program of the PHS Community Services Society, run by East Vancouver Roasters, and Fresh to Families, a project conceived by the Farmers Market Association and set up and managed under the VanCity Community Foundation. A third partner is yet to be announced.
Follow the Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for all the latest updates.
The new year is in full swing, and while the weather isn’t quite cooperating, there are some great events happening around town that will lift your spirits this weekend. Reminder: Coquitlam’s Lights at Lafarge is still open until January 21st!
Things to do in Vancouver This Weekend
Events that run for longer than three days in a row are highlighted in green.
National Cupcake Day is cross-country event presented by the BC SPCA, the Ontario SPCA and participating humane societies. This year, Cupcake Day falls on Monday, February 26th (the last Monday of February), but animal lovers and bakers are encouraged to fundraise throughout January and February.
“When it comes to baking, cupcakes are pretty foolproof. Trust me, if I can make them, anyone can,” says National Cupcake Day spokesperson and TV host Kristina Matisic. “Over the past few years we’ve seen kids, small businesses and large companies get involved. I love the cute creations that people come up with and seeing all the donations come in.”
Participants who register before Wednesday, January 31st and raise $50 will be entered in a draw to win a KitchenAid Stand mixer, the perfect tool for whipping up delicious cupcakes and frosting.
The BC SPCA will use the funds to find homes for surrendered, rescued, neglected or abused animals, and provide emergency care to injured animals.
Everyone who registers and makes a self-donation of $25 or more will be sent a host kit including a fundraising guide, cupcake selfie frame, mini tote bag and more. The host kit materials are also available for download on the website.
Customize your Personal Fundraising Centre online and ask your friends, family and colleagues to support your fundraising efforts.
Send your friends and family an email through your participant centre, encouraging them to show their support by donating online.
Plan your National Cupcake Day Party for home, work, school or wherever you think people would love to eat cupcakes.
Hold your National Cupcake Day Party on Monday, February 27th or any day in January or February that works for you.
Bake, decorate and eat!
Last year, Canadians raised more than $600,000 through their baking and fundraising efforts. Since the campaign’s inception in 2013, $2.45 million has been raised, with proceeds going to participating SPCAs and humane societies across the country.
Visit the National Cupcake Day website to register, bake and donate. In BC, you can choose to support the BC SPCA, Langley Animal Protection Society, and Victoria Humane Society. Follow National Cupcake Day on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Vancouver Opera presents Donizetti’s Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) – one part love story, one part hilarious comedy, two parts music that will stir the soul – in two acts with a libretto by Felice Romani. This is the second production of the company’s exciting 2017–2018 Season and Festival, opening on January 21st, 2018 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
Vancouver Opera presents Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore
An evening of Love, Laughter & Magic Potion When: Janaury 25 & 27 @ 7:30pm & Sunday, January 21 @ 2:00pm Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre (650 Hamilton St) Tickets: Tickets from $49 are available at the Vancouver Opera Ticket Centre, by telephone (604) 683-0222, or online. Discounts for groups of ten or more, call 604-683-0222.
Photo credit: Michael Cooper
A love struck man, a village beauty, an army captain, and a travelling doctor with a magic potion – all set in a picturesque early 1900’s Canadian locale oozing with small town charm. L’Elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) is without a doubt one of the most well-known operas of the bel canto era, the most performed of all Donizetti’s operas, and has not been seen by Vancouver audiences since 1999.
L’Elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love) is a Cinderella-esque tale in which a poor and hapless young man wins the hand of a small Canadian town’s most beautiful young woman (with the help of a secret “elixir” from a travelling salesman). Spoiler alert: The elixir is Bordeaux.
Win Tickets
I have a pair of tickets to give away for the January 25th performance at 7:30pm. Here’s how you can enter to win:
Click below to get another entry by posting on Twitter:
[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win tickets to #ElixirVO presented by @VancouverOpera http://ow.ly/RgOh30hIGej” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. This performance is sung in Italian with English SURTITLES™ projected above the stage.
Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre (630 Hamilton St, Vancouver) When: Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 8:00pm Tickets: On sale now from $39 via the PuSh Festival
Renowned choreographer LIN Lee-Chen draws on Taiwanese tribal tradition and ceremonial rite in this monumental contemporary dance work. Inspired by the ocean that encloses her native island of Taiwan, Lee-Chen pays respect to life-giving water in a visually-lush spectacle featuring 18 dancers accompanied by drummer and vocalist.
“We are proud to partner with the PuSh Festival in hosting Legend Lin Dance Theatre,” says Charlie Wu, Managing Director of TAIWANfest. “Not only will this mark the first-ever time these revered artists set foot on our coast, it also provides Vancouverites the opportunity to encounter more of the extraordinary talent to emerge from one of Asia’s most culturally vibrant hubs with an incredible storied history.”
Adorned in exquisite costumes with striking minimalist sets in the backdrop, the artists of Legend Lin Dance Theatre promise to mesmerize audiences in The Eternal Tides. On stage, a vivid tableau of fabric and silver grass, red-tinted figures and shocks of white, are composed with flair and delicacy. With subtle, hypnotic movement, the dancers create poetry in motion, evoking the ebb and flow of nature and its precariousness in modern life.
Taiwanese folk and Taoist ritual are weaved in The Eternal Tides, among which the mystic legends of the eagle and the ‘White Bird’. Further, Lee-Chen uses symbolism of the seed, which travels via the sea to new lands to take root. A variety of 20 seeds— flower, grain and fruit—are featured as elements of the sets and costumes.
The PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is Vancouver’s signature, mid-winter cultural event, taking place over three weeks each January in theatres and venues across the city. The PuSh Festival presents groundbreaking, contemporary works of theatre, dance, music, and multimedia by acclaimed local, national, and international artists.
Win Tickets
I have a pair of tickets to give away to this performance on February 3rd. 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 The Eternal Tides at the @pushfestival #LIVEPUSH http://ow.ly/bfLR30hGaeb” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Monday, January 15, 2018. Follow the PuSh Festival on Facebook and Twitter.
