One Night in Monte Carlo for Variety BC

Add a Comment by Rebecca Bollwitt

Join Variety for a singular night to remember! One Night in Monte Carlo is where chandeliers meet a pop culture mashup of entertainment over a multi-course dinner. An elegant red carpet arrival sets the tone for an event designed to make an entrance and be entranced.

One Night in Monte Carlo for Variety BC

Classic interactive games of chance make a special renaissance including craps, roulette and blackjack; all in the name of a great cause.

When: Saturday, April 8, 2017 6:00pm to 12:00am
Where: Pinnacle Hotel Harbourfront (1133 W Hastings St)
Tickets: Available online now

Enjoy a night of vintage glamour and nouveau chic, with ballet and burlesque, champagne and cocktails. Proceeds from this event will support the Variety Mobility Program. For more information, follow Variety on Facebook.

Variety – the Children’s Charity steps in where health care ends, providing direct help to children with special needs in BC and the Yukon. For over 50 years Variety has ensured children have the support to reach their potential. Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss604.com is a proud Board Member of Variety BC.

#SkiNorthBC: 72 Hours in Smithers

Add a Comment by Rebecca Bollwitt
Disclosure: Sponsored Post — This post is sponsored in partnership with the SnowSeekers#SkiNorthBC campaign Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.

This winter I partnered with SnowSeekers, with whom I have done a few fun assignments, to share their #SkiNorthBC stories from destinations in Northern BC.

The team visited Powder King, Terrace, Smithers, Quesnel, and Troll Ski Resort. The fifth story is from SnowSeekers #SkiNorthBC expedition member Dax Justin, as he spends 72 Hours in Smithers, BC.

72 Hours in Smithers

Dax is an explorer and photographer based in the Canadian Rockies, and it was his first trip to Smithers, which is located at the halfway mark between Prince George and Prince Rupert in Northern BC. Its population is about 5,400 and its foundation is alpine culture. With a quick bit of research, Dax discovered that a town bylaw even requires businesses in the downtown area to construct buildings in an Alpine style.

» Read Dax Justin’s full story on SnowSeekers website »


“Meet Taylor Bachrach, Canada’s powder-shredding mayor.” Photo by Dax Justin

Dax spent the day with Taylor Bachrach, Canada’s powder-shredding mayor, found sustenance at Aspen in the Riverhouse Lounge, enjoyed the musical stylings of multi Grammy-winner Alex Cuba, and caught the sunrise from Hudson Bay Mountain.


Smithers, BC. Photo by Dax Justin

“It was my first snow cat ride. It was pitch black and we were on the side of a mountain. And the other was that we didn’t have matches or a lighter to spark up the wood stove in our cabin. But that was OK. We huddled in and talked, thankful to see the first golden rays of morning as we headed out for the first tracks shoot. We watched the sun come up and then skied down the mountain. What an exhilarating start the day with no one else around us. I bet you could hear us whooping it up for miles getting to experience this amazing alpine experience.”


Photo by Dax Justin

» Read Dax Justin’s full story on SnowSeekers website »

If You Go

#SkiNorthBC and explore more! For travellers, SnowSeekers has partnered with National Car rental to secure you a SnowSeekers preferred rate. Make a reservation online, or with an agent and in the Contract field enter XVC4SNO for a savings that could cover your ski pass cost every day.

Giveaway: Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

Comments 80 by Rebecca Bollwitt

I love digging into Vancouver’s history (as evidenced by my 1,000 plus posts about local history on this site) so when Will Woods first came along with his Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours about five years ago, I was very excited to see that it would be shared with locals and visits alike, in a creative way.

Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours

On the website Woods writes: “We tell the stories that don’t make it onto the tour buses – tales of crime, corruption, and sin. As former mayor and all-round rogue L.D. Taylor once said: ‘We’re a port city. This ain’t no Sunday School town!'”

Today, Forbidden Vancouver has grown, with 12 guides who have hosted over a thousand walking tours and held special events at famous venues like the Penthouse and the Commodore. The two main tours they operate are The Lost Souls of Gastown and Prohibition City, which start up again in March.

If your idea of adventure is following your guide down lamplit alleyways, back to a world of illegal booze, opium dens, and unsolved murders, then you’ve come to the right place.

Tour: Lost Souls of Gastown
Running: Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays (starting March 3, 2017)
Details: Venture into Vancouver’s earliest and most gruesome history on the Lost Souls a Gastown. A time when Vancouver was the Granville Townsite – wild frontier town that suffered a devastating fire, smallpox outbreaks, and unsolved murders.

Designed for adult audiences, the Lost Souls of Gastown is both a walking tour and a theatre piece. Created by Forbidden Vancouver’s Chief Storyteller Will Woods – and based on documented Vancouver history – the plot weaves through back streets and alleyways to a dramatic finale in the heart of Gastown’s Maple Tree Square.

Tour: Prohibition City
Running: Every day (starting April 1, 2017)
Details: Delve into Vancouver’s dirtiest secrets on this scandal fuelled walking tour. Starting in the world of the saloon, you trace the story of prohibition in Vancouver while winding along the city’s most storied streets. You’ll hear tales of blind pigs, corrupt mayors, and enterprising bootleggers. Plus you’ll see first hand evidence of opium dens and walk down an alleyway once teeming with over 40 “bawdy houses.”

Along the way you’ll see some of the city’s greatest heritage buildings like the Sun Tower and the Dominion Building, which once battled to become the tallest building in the British Empire. The tour finishes in Gastown, steps from the city’s most talked about bars and restaurants.


I was honoured to review & endorse Forbidden Vancouver’s Secrets of the Streets.

Enter to Win

I have a gift certificate for two tickets to give away for the Prohibition City or Lost Souls of Gastown tours (winner’s choice).

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 a @Forbidden_Tour http://owl.li/NUOw309dDYw” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Wednesday, March 1, 2017. Follow Forbidden Vancouver on Facebook, and Twitter for more info.

Update The winner is Shelley!

Pemberton Music Festival 2017 Dates

Add a Comment by Rebecca Bollwitt

Huka Entertainment is pleased to announce that Pemberton Music Festival, Canada’s biggest camping, music and comedy festival, will return for its fourth consecutive year on Thursday, July 13 through Sunday, July 16, 2017. Last year’s event drew more than 180,000 fans to the most beautiful place on earth and featured more than 100 performances over four days.

Pemberton Music Festival

A limited supply of Early Bird tickets, which enable fans to purchase advance festival passes at a discount before this year’s lineup is announced, go on sale Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 10:00am PST online.

Early bird ticket prices start at $299 CAD plus the option to buy a camping and parking pass during the early bird period. In the coming weeks, during advance and regular on sales, all campers will be required to purchase a camping bundle that includes 1 to 4 festival passes and either a parking pass or Pemberton’s new rideshare option.

For those electing to stay in nearby Whistler where accommodations from the luxurious to the affordable abound, shuttle passes are required to be purchased in a bundle along with festival tickets.

Fans are encouraged to plan early, demand is likely to increase, space is limited and early bird tickets will go fast. The Pemberton Music Festival was ranked as a Top Ten Worldwide Grossing Festival, according to industry trade magazine Pollstar in 2016.

Follow Pemberton Music Festival (#PembyFest) on Twitter and Facebook for more information.

Women in Tech Week Vancouver

Add a Comment by Rebecca Bollwitt

Women in Tech Week is coming up February 27th to March 3rd, with events around North America and several right here in Vancouver. The goal is to encourage women to take on new challenges in the tech industry by educating, inspiring, and exploring new opportunities.

Women in Tech Week Vancouver

On Monday, February 27, 2017 there is the Breakfast Kickoff: Bringing Out The Big Guns, featuring Dawen Nozdryn-Plotnicki, Advanced Analytics Director at Boeing. Each day that follows will have a lineup of workshops and networking events.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017: WWT Women, Wine & Tech @ IQmetrix
Tuesday, February 28, 2017 Incubating The Next Techstars
Wednesday, March 1, 2017: Taking Charge Of Tech: Tech Summit
Thursday, March 2, 2017: Women In Tech Awards Soiree
Friday, March 3, 2017: Vantec Women’s Pitch Night
Saturday, March 4, 2017: Catch The Bug A Workshop For Girls In Grade 10-12
Saturday: IDance: Women In Tech Girl Power Cardio

These types of events are near and dear to my heart. I built my first website in 1997, while still in high school, and my career in online media started in the year 2000. I’ve owned my own website development shop since 2008, and published the city’s most award-winning blog since 2004. I’m a woman in tech, and I also know how important it is to engage girls of all ages in wonders of engineering, coding, and so much more that the future can hold for them.

A general admission WINtech pass ($90, purchase by February 26) will get you into all of the week’s events. To get involved with the upcoming Women in Tech Week, follow WINtech on Facebook and Twitter.