Every year, I either utter these words or I overhear them: “I’m going to Mexico, then Greece, but first I’ll stop at India and Nepal, so I’ll meet you over at Portugal.” With dozens of cultural pavilions, serving up amazing fare along with activities, shopping, demos, and music, the Surrey Fusion Festival is like no other festival around.
Surrey Fusion Festival
Where: Holland Park, Surrey When: Saturday, July 22 & Sunday, 23, 2017 11:00am to 10:00pm Admission: FREE! You can also purchase food tickets $1 each.
Surrey Fusion Festival Lineup
Nelly Furtado, Classified, Alx Veliz, The Zolas, White Thunder Dance Theatre, Carmanah, Sagkeeng’s Finest, Jory Kinjo, Nuela Charles, Warren Dean Flandez, Crystal Shawanda, William Prince, Kytami, Desi Sub Culture, Bobs & Lolo, Karen Flamenco, and more.
There will be many community performances on 6 stages: Concord Pacific World Music Stage, Guildford Dance Stage, SFU Celebration Stage, Safeway Cooking Stage, YVR Community Stage, Canada 150 Stage.
Activities & Attractions
Some of the participating organizations and activity areas are: Coast Capital Activity Tent, Kids World & Sports Zone, Kin’s Farm Market, Port of Vancouver, Storyville, Toddler Town, Canuck Soap & Candle Inc., Encorp Pacific Return-It 101, FlyOver Canada, KPU Photo Booth, Metro Vancouver Regional Parks, Re-Enactors at Surrey Fusion Festival, Surrey Hearing Care, The Centre for Child Development.
The Canada 150 Stage will feature a full line up of talent representing Canadians across the country and will include Indigenous artists, French Canadian performers as well as local acts.
The 150 Zone will also host five interactive pavilions including Canada, French Canada, First Nations; both West Coast and Prairie, Metis and Inuit. Each of the pavilions will showcase culture, dance and cuisine.
An Indigenous Village within the Canada 150 Zone will showcase 9 full-size tipis programmed with carving demonstrations, storytelling, drum making, traditional hand games and arts & crafts vendors. A Shabotan tipi long lounge as well as a furnished Inuit summer home and traditional medicine wheel will be included in the village.
Cultural Pavilions
Afghanistan
Bangladesh
China
India
Indonesia
Nepal
Pakistan
Palestine
Philippines
Taiwan
Thailand
Vietnam
Vietnamese Canadian Community
Democratic Republic of Congo
Gabon
Ghana
Kenya
Nigeria
South Africa
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Canada
First Nations
French-Canadian
Inuit
Métis
Mexico
The 6th annual Surrey Doors Open is a free city-wide event that takes place on June 17th. You can explore 21 venues, connected by trolley stops or on a self-guided tour, and experience Surrey’s rich culture, history, art and architecture.
Surrey Doors Open 2017
Where: 21 venues in City Centre, Cloverdale, Newton, South Surrey When: Saturday June 17, 2017 from 11:00am to 4:00pm Admission & Activities: FREE during the event
Doors Open History
The inspiration for Surrey’s Doors Open stems from origins in France where the first Doors Open event (La Journee Portes Ouvertes) took place in 1984. The idea soon spread to neighbouring countries and has since expanded around the globe.
Toronto was the first North American city to follow the European lead and launched a high profile event showcasing constructed heritage, architecture and design as a millennium project in 2000. The City of Richmond has hosted the event over the last 9 years, and has grown their community involvement to over 40 open sites throughout Richmond.
Participating Venues
At each venue you can enjoy free guided tours, entertainment, and the chance to win great prizes! Use the tag #SurreyDoorsOpen along the way to enter the photo contest too.
BC Vintage Truck Museum
City Centre Library
Cloverdale Library
Elgin Heritage Park
Friends of the Grove
Harness Racing BC
Historic Stewart Farm
Honeybee Centre
Newton Cultural Centre
Newton District 3 RCMP Office
Newton Library
Semiahmoo Arts
Semiahmoo Library
South Surrey Recreation & Arts Centre
Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest
Surrey Animal Resource Centre
Surrey Archives
Surrey City Hall
Surrey Fire Service No. 8 Cloverdale
Surrey Operations Centre
Surrey’s Heritage Rail
Use the free hop-on/hop-off trolley and walking maps to explore the venues.
See everything that’s happening this summer for #SurreyCanada150, including many free festivals and events, on the Surrey Canada 150 website where you can build your own schedule.
Miss604 is proud to be a sponsor of Surrey Doors Open
The 7th annual Vancouver Mini Maker Faire returns to the PNE Forum this month for two full days of maker exhibits, workshops, speakers, building, painting, crafting, soldering, brewing, sewing, 3D printing and more!
Vancouver Mini Maker Faire
When: Saturday, June 10 & Sunday, June 11, 2017 10:00am to 6:00pm Where: PNE Forum (2901 E Hastings St, Vancouver) Tickets: Available online now
Browse, meet, and speak with local makers while you enjoy activities – included with your admission – such as building your own rocket, t-shirt customization, crafts like build-a-button, cheese making, and a painting station. The workshops and speaker series are back too.
There’s even an activity called Stomp the City where kids can make a cardboard building and at the end of each day, one will get the chance to dress up like Godzilla and stomp everything!
Vancouver Mini Maker Faire is giving away a 3D printer too! Get a bonus entry with your ticketed admission on site. The winner will be drawn on Sunday afternoon at the Faire.
Win a Maker Faire Prize Pack
I have an exclusive Vancouver Mini Maker Faire prize package to give away that includes:
Book: Out of the Box by Jemma Westing – 25 cardboard engineering projects for makers
[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win a @VanMakerFaire prize package http://ht.ly/lxju30cf602″ quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Wednesday, June 7, 2017. The winner must be able to pick up the prize package at the Faire on June 10 or June 11, 2017.
For the first weekend in June, Miss604 is proud to once again sponsor Hats Off Day at Burnaby Heights. This all-day festival is free and full of family fun, spanning 10 car-free blocks of Hastings between Boundary and Gamma. Check out this event and much more in the list below, along with the new full-month event list for June:
Things to do in Vancouver This Weekend
Events that run for longer than three days in a row are highlighted in green.
Never miss my TOP PICKS for events in Vancouver! Receive this event list right to your email inbox by signing up for the Miss604 Weekly Events Newsletter below:
The best way to explore a city’s history is to go for a walk. Lucky for me, when I was on assignment with FestivalSeekers in Nanaimo, I had two amazing guides. The first was Chris Sholberg, the city’s Culture and Heritage Planner, and the second was Brian McFadden, Vice President of the Vancouver Island Military Museum. I knew Nanaimo was famous for bathtub races and those delicious Nanaimo bars, but those particular elements only scratch the surface.
From the Snuneymuxw First Nation and the Hudson’s Bay Company, to coal mining, World War II code crackers, and the world’s largest fruit cake ever made – seriously! There’s a proud cultural heritage with a whole lot of fun and quirkiness mixed in, which makes Nanaimo so unique. You can explore Nanaimo this summer through a full lineup of festivals and events.
Nanaimo Celebrates Canada 150 Events
Black Stones & Bathtubs: A Musical Revue of The Town You Never Knew
Aboriginal Day Celebration: Maffeo-Sutton Park
Multicultural Festival: Wesley St. Old City Quarter
Canadian Letters Exhibit: Nanaimo Museum & Vancouver Island University
Canada Day Community Party & Fireworks: Maffeo Sutton Park
The Nanaimo Bastion, built between 1853 and 1855, is the only remaining wooden Hudson’s Bay Company bastion in North America. Contrary to other HBC trading posts that dealt in fur, Nanaimo’s Bastion was built to trade coal. Stop by the Bastion around 11:45am for a small ceremony and to watch the firing of the cannons at 12:00pm. This takes place every day between May and September.
