Red Truck Beer is bringing back its Truck Stop Concert Series, bringing two stages full of music to Brewery Creek in East Vancouver this summer.
Red Truck Beer Summer Concert Series
Saturday, June 11, 2016 from 4:00pm to 10:00pm
Truck Stop Concert Series #1- Featuring:
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Dawn Pemberton, Ballantynes, Chin + Lifetimes, Red Gold & Green Machine And Star Captains.
Saturday, July 9, 2016 from 4:00pm to 10:00pm
Truck Stop Concert Series #2 – Featuring:
Hollerado, Bend Sinister, High Kicks, Redeye Empire, Special Guests + More To Be Announced.
Saturday, August 6, 2016 from 4:00pm to 10:00pm
Truck Stop Concert Series #3 – Featuring:
Jon Pardi, The Washboard Union, Special Guests + More To Be Announced.
Individual tickets are on sale now (for $35), along with an early bird Tailgate Pass option (for $85), and discounted full season pass options.
Each event will have live music, food trucks, and of course locally-brewed craft beer. The concert series will be held at the Red Truck Brewery (295 East 1st Ave) in the heart of East Vancouver’s Brewery Creek neighbourhood. Follow Red Truck Beer on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for more information.
Tickets are on sale now for the 12th annual Surrey International Children’s Festival, happening May 26-28 at Bear Creek Park. This event inspires young hearts and minds to greater possibilities, and celebrates our rich and diverse cultural heritage through performing and visual arts experiences.
Surrey International Children’s Festival
Where:
Surrey Arts Centre and Bear Creek Park (13750 88 Ave). There are 5 performance venues which will feature national and international performers:
- 3 venues inside the Arts Centre (Main Stage Theatre, Studio Theatre and Lily Pad Stage)
- 2 venues in Bear Creek Park (Leap Frog Stage and Community Spirit Stage).
- There are hands-on arts activities inside tents, and roving performances throughout the park. It is a unique and festive festival! A one-of-a-kind in Surrey and the surrounding area.
When:
Thursday, May 26, 2016 from 9:00am to 2:30pm
Friday, May 27, 2016 from 9:00am to 2:30pm
Saturday, May 28, 2016 from 10:30am to 7:30pm (parade at 12:30pm)
Access to the site is free, as well as participation in Saturday’s parade. However most performances and activities are ticketed. All ticket levels are available now, for School Groups, Thursday/Friday, and Saturday All Access. Book your tickets online (School Group tickets and Saturday All Access Passes are not available online); by phone (604) 501-5566; and in person at the Surrey Arts Centre box office.
This year’s festival theme is: Share your stories. In today’s age of digital technology and social media, stories are being shared like never before. Everyone has a story about the first time they were touched by an artistic experience and if you don’t, come to the children’s festival and you will.
Check out the full activities list and performance schedule online, including information about festival headliners Love That Dog (Netherlands), The Middle of Everywhere (USA), and Charlotte Diamond (Canada).
Win Passes
As a proud sponsor of the Surrey International Children’s Festival, I’m pleased to offer up a 4 pack of Saturday All Access Passes to one lucky Miss604 reader. These passes include full access to all the Arts Activities and Ticketed Performances. Here’s how you can enter to win:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
Follow the Surrey International Children’s Festival on Twitter for more information. Performances and activities are subject to availability. First come, first served. Line ups for shows begin 30 minutes before show time. I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, April 19, 2016.
Update The winner is Jason!
Have I mentioned lately how much I love my neighbourhood? Since moving into Downtown Vancouver almost 12 years ago, I have never regretted picking the West End as my home.
This area is home to hundreds of restaurants, flanked by beaches and the best urban forest in the world. A block in from one of its lively, major thoroughfares (Denman, Robson, Davie) birds sing, the suburban sound of lawn mowers do their job, the roads are lined with lush green and pink blossoming trees, and there is a diverse and true sense of community.
Jeff Lee recently reported in the Vancouver Sun that this long-established neighbourhood’s unnamed lanes will soon be given titles, and the selections so far are amazing.
The streets of Vancouver’s West End are fixed with names like Haro, Denman, Broughton, Bute, Bidwell and Robson as well as many other early male explorers and pioneers. Like much of the rest of the city, it is a neighbourhood named largely after white Anglo-Saxon men, an urban geography unbalanced against the contributions made by settlers, immigrants, women and First Nations.
But now Vancouver plans to christen some of the unnamed street-wide lanes that run through the neighbourhood after prominent women, Aids activists and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.
The city’s civic asset naming committee recently designated 11 unnamed lanes to be given titles in response to a new West End Community Plan adopted by council that will see many of those roadways become frontages for infill development. As development applications are made, the city will formally name those previously anonymous lanes. [Source]
This means that at least one of the Awesome Women in Vancouver History that I have written about, suffragette and alderwoman Helena Gutteridge, will be getting a lane named in her honour.
1937: Mayor George C. Miller administers the oath of office to Vancouver’s first alderwoman Miss Helena Rose Gutteridge. Photograph attributed to D’Arcy. Archives# Port P276.1
The naming committee has also already selected Rosemary Brown (1930-2003), the first black Canadian woman to be elected to any provincial legislature, to get a lane between Harwood Street and Beach Avenue/Pacific Street. ted northe, a leader in the LGBTQ community and a human-rights activist, will have a lane between Barclay and Nelson.
There are 8 other names that have been approved that include: Early Hawaiian settler Eihu and his wife Mary See-em-ia, the granddaughter of Chief Capilano; impresario and Polar Bear Swim originator Peter Basil Pantages, lifeguard Kathleen Cather, Aids activist Dr. Peter Jepson-Young, writer and poet Pauline Johnson Tekahionwake, seniors advocate Kathleen (Kay) Stovold and beauty school founder Maxine MacGilvray.
The Pauline Johnson Memorial in Stanley Park
This is just another reason to love my neighbourhood! You can read more about this initiative in Jeff Lee’s article and browse some of the names already on the City of Vancouver’s Reserve List.
The Ancient Forest (Chun T’oh Whudujut) BC’s newest Provincial Park, is the only known inland temperate rainforest in the world, and is home to a grouping of 800-2,000 year old cedars. This designation is thanks to the hard work and dedication of a team of volunteers, including the Lheidli T’enneh First Nation & Caledonia Ramblers Hiking Society and their supporters.
BC’s Newest Provincial Park
The area was known to the Dome Creek Forest Information Committee, which was formed in 1990 to advocate for the protection of the Upper Walker Creek watershed. The cedar giants, now at the core of the new Provincial Park, were stumbled upon in 2005 (by David Radies of UNBC) and stood in the a middle of an approved cut block. This propelled the drive to protect the land, which lies just an hour east of Prince George along Highway 16.
The trail head is marked by a modest sign on the side of the highway, and when I visited in April there was still some snow in the parking lot and along many of the trails. There are easy-to-moderate trails that are marked and mapped out with interpretive signage. Loop around to the Big Tree (which is a relative term among the many enormous groves), traverse across the top of the park to a cascading waterfall, rest on a bench, and enjoy the lookout with Mount Sir Alexander off in the distance.
Thousands of Volunteer Hours
The Ancient Forest Interpretive Trail was officially opened on June 4, 2006 and now almost 10 years later, a 11,190-hectare area at the core of this former cut site, is now protected. In 2008, the licensee cancelled plans for harvesting this block, and the Ancient Forest obtained a greater level of protection.
The Caledonia Ramblers Hiking Society continues their mission to this day, to “provide access into the world unique inland temperate rainforest of British Columbia by way of a 4,500 meter long plank pathway at the Ancient Forest Interpretive Trail.”
The 3km plank pathway is still a work-in-progress in some parts but the 500m Universal Boardwalk was completed in 2015, providing access to the forest for those visitors in wheelchairs, and others with mobility or mental health challenges. This is the result of 3000 hours of labor, from 50 volunteers.
20,000 visitors explored this unique ecosystem, walking between the towering trees, waterfalls, lichens, and mosses of this rainforest when it was a “hidden gem”. With this new designation, hopefully it puts the Ancient Forest on more maps so that many more can discover the beauty and majesty of this magical place.
If you’re visiting the area, check in with Tourism Prince George on Twitter and Facebook for the latest information.
Related: Snowshoeing in the Ancient Forest (2010).
July 2020, UPDATE – From CBC Vancouver:
A new injection of government money is helping a B.C. First Nation start an ambitious project in the world’s only inland temperate rainforest.
The Lheidli T’enneh Nation, whose traditional territories stretch from Prince George to the Alberta border, announced Monday that both the provincial and federal government are contributing funds toward an $8.7 million development project the nation is planning in the Ancient Forest Provincial Park, or Chun T’oh Whudujut in the local Lheidli language.
Chun T’oh Whudujutis located 120 kilometres east of Prince George, and according to B.C. Parks, covers an area of over 11,000 hectares, including 685 hectares of protected land.
The Lheidli T’enneh Nation plans to use the new funds to build new hiking trails, a sweat lodge, a pit house and a gazebo in the park. The project, which is expected to take three years, also includes improving existing boardwalks, access roads, washrooms, parking and signage.
The largest tour of California wine comes to Vancouver this month, with the Arts Club’s California Wine Fair. In partnership with the Wine Institute of California, this fundraiser offers the opportunity to taste over 350 wines from 100 California wineries.
The Arts Club’s California Wine Fair
Presented by BFL Insurance in partnership with the Wine Institute of California
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre East Building Ballrooms A & B.
When: Monday, April 25, 2016 from 7:00pm to 9:30pm
Tickets: Tickets are on sale now for $90, or $75 for groups of 10+.
Wineries like Meiomi Estate, Signorello Estate, and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars will pour their signature selections exclusive to this event. Santa Barbara County’s Meiomi includes three vineyards renowned for their unique pinot noir and chardonnay. Signorello Estate’s unique Napa Valley hillside terrain, with its varied soil and sun exposures, shapes the dynamic body of their cabernet sauvignon and chardonnays.
California Wine Fair attendees have the rare opportunity to taste notes of scorched earth, new saddle leather, and crushed rock layered into wines from this progressive estate regarded for their sustainable farming practices. Pioneer grape-grower Nathan Fay made Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars synonymous with cabernet sauvignon; planting the first cabernet sauvignon in the Stag’s Leap District and winning first place in the Cabernet Sauvignon category at the Judgment of Paris.
Rounding out the rich array of 400 premium wines is an extensive silent auction featuring premium California wines, luxury goods, and entertainment and travel packages.
As the Arts Club’s signature spring fundraiser, all proceeds from event ticket sales and auction packages go toward the development of new Canadian plays and staging world-class theatre created by Vancouver artists. Follow the Arts Club on Twitter and Facebook for more information.
