63 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Friday, December 9

Looking for something to do on Friday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 63 events happening in or around Vancouver on Friday, December 9.

 

CONCERTS

American pop-rock legend Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac fame performs on her 24 Karat Gold Tour, with guests the Pretenders.

Canadian folk-fusion band the Wheat in the Barley plays St. James Hall in support of the St. James Hall Restoration Fund.

Local punk-rock band the Ramores plays SBC Restaurant, with guests Gnar Gnars, Major Buzz, and Austringer.

Australian indie-folk rockers the Paper Kites play the second of two shows at the Rio, with guest Doe Paoro.

Canadian rockabilly band Cousin Harley, led by Paul Pigat, plays the Rickshaw, with guests the 24th Street Wailers.

Toronto jazz drummer Ernesto Cervini leads his sextet Turboprop at Frankie's.

 

BENEFITS

The ongoing Lights of Hope Christmas lights display at St. Paul's Hospital raises funds for the St. Paul's Foundation.

Vote on your favourite gingerbread creation and get your photo with Santa at Grouse Mountain, with proceeds to SOS Children’s Village B.C.'s programs and homes for local foster children and homeless youth.

 

ETCETERA

The Festival of Lights at VanDusen Botanical Garden features over one-million twinkling lights, a carousel, a dancing-lights show, the Make-A-Wish candle grotto, and photos with Santa.

Experience a winter wonderland at Bloedel Conversatory's Holiday Heights, complete with magical lights, festive music, a holiday scavenger hunt, seasonal activities, and a Ferris-wheel ride.

Over 265 exhibitors sell everything from clothing, to art, to home décor and accessories at the PNE Forum's Make It!

Heritage Christmas at Burnaby Village Museum features light displays, vintage shop-window displays, a visit with Father Christmas, live entertainment, fresh heritage baking, kids' crafts, a sing along, and a scavenger hunt.

The Vancouver Christmas Market continues at Jack Poole Plaza, featuring traditional German cuisine, mulled wine, gingerbread, German beer, a Christmas pyramid, a large heated tent overlooking the North Shore, entertainment, a carousel, and vendors selling gifts and treasures.

The Vancouver Education and Career Fair and Vancouver Convention Centre connects B.C. residents to study and work opportunities at home and abroad.

 

KIDS' STUFF

Help Santa search for his missing elves during an exhilarating simulated flight-ride experience across Canada and on to the North Pole at Flyover Canada.

 

FORUMS

Tzeporah Berman (above) and Jennifer Allan discuss what was and wasn't agreed to at the Paris Agreement and what this means for progress on climate change. Forum takes place at SFU Harbour Centre.

 

SPORTS

The Vancouver Giants take on the Everett Silvertips in Western Hockey League action at Langley Events Centre.

 

COMEDY

The Vancouver TheatreSports League presents the improv show Christmas Queen 3: The Bachelorette Edition at the Improv Centre.

American standup comedian and TV host Nikki Glaser performs at a free show at the Vogue Theatre as part of the Leafly Comedy Tour.

Los Angeles-based standup comedian Quinn Dahle performs the second of three nights at the Comedy Mix.

Standup comedian Patrick Haye performs the second of three nights at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

Comedian Alicia Tobin and guests Graham Clark and Ryan Williams present an evening of drawing and laughing at Hot Art Wet City Gallery.

 

DANCE

Ballet BC presents the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's rendition of the classic holiday ballet Nutcracker at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

The School for the Contemporary Arts at SFU presents a performance at Studio D of Ascension, a student-led production involving collaboration between students from music, film, dance, and theatre.

Brussells-based German Jauregui, in collaboration with Company 605, presents a dance duet at the Firehall Arts Centre in which the performers surrender to circumstances and their interdependence.

 

MUSIC

Shao-Chia Lü conducts violinist Cho-Liang Lin and the Taiwan Philharmonic in a program of Chun-Wei Lee's The Last Mile, Tyzen Hsiao's Violin Concerto in D Major, Op 50, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5, Op 64, E Minor at Chan Centre.

The Vivaldi Chamber Choir presents a concert of medieval wassails, traditional songs, and popular seasonal tunes at St. Helen's Anglican Church.

Jon Washburn conducts the Vancouver Chamber Choir and Orchestra, the Pacifica Singers, and soloists Martha Guth, Susan Platts, Colin Balzer, and Tyler Duncan in a performance of the choral classic at the Orpheum Theatre.

William Rowson conducts host Christopher Gaze, the UBC Opera Ensemble, EnChor, and the Vancouver Symphony in a traditional holiday concert at St. Andrew's-Wesley Church.

Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir presents its annual holiday concert featuring gospel adaptations of classic Christmas songs at Christ Church Cathedral.

Performance by the North Shore-based multi-generational group Ambleside Orchestra at Lonsdale Quay.

The Vancouver Welsh Society presents the holiday classic by Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales, at Cambrian Hall.

 

GALLERIES

Juxtapoz x Superflat exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery offers a unique insight into contemporary art and its place in cultural life.

Walker Evans: Depth of Field at the Vancouver Art Gallery features more than 200 black and white and colour prints from the 1920s through to the 1970s.

Stare exhibition at Vancouver Art Gallery features photographic works that evoke a fixed and concentrated gaze on the part of artist and viewer.

 

MUSEUMS

Layers of Influence: Unfolding Cloth Across Cultures at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features more than 130 diverse cultural garments, from Japanese kimonos, to colourful Indian saris, to the elaborate feather cloaks of the Maori people of Aotearoa/New Zealand.

The Museum of Anthropology at UBC hosts an exhibition that features the carvings of Papua New Guinea's Iatmul people.

At the Museum of Vancouver, you can explore the cultural power and significance of collecting through wall-to-wall displays of unconventional objects.

 

THEATRE

Vancouver sketch troupe Peter n' Chris present a sendup of Charles Dickens's classic holiday story at Performance Works.

Fei Ren directs a fictionalized account of writer-performer Kevin Kokoska’s lived experience in The Mirror Test, at the Orpheum Annex.

Vancouver bluesman Jim Byrnes stars in Bah! Humbug, a retelling of Charles Dickens's classic tale A Christmas Carol, at SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.

GTI Theatrical Productions Society presents David Sedaris's holiday comedy The Santaland Diaries at North Van's Presentation House Theatre.

Alchemy Theatre presents Alice in Wonderland, a play based on Lewis Carroll's famous work, at Studio 1398.

Performance at the York Theatre of East Van Panto: Little Red Riding Hood, Theatre Replacement's pantomime that sees Little Red Riding Hood battling bike thieves, distracted drivers, and the Big Bad Wolf.

Pacific Theatre presents a performance of Holy Mo! A Christmas Show!, director Kerry van der Griend's irreverent re-imagining of the Nativity story.

The Arts Club Theatre Company presents The Day Before Christmas--about a perfectionist who is desperately juggling family and work as she attempts to create the perfect Christmas--at the Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre.

Leaping Thespians presents A Christmas Carol In Gay Apparel, an original parody of Charles Dickens's classic holiday tale, at the Cultch.

The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Avenue Q--the musical story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college graduate who arrives in New York City looking for love, a job, and his purpose in life--at Granville Island Stage.

Realwheels Theatre presents a performance at the Cultch of Creeps, David E. Freeman's dark comedy about four disabled men who rebel against the way they've been treated and barricade themselves in a washroom.

The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Mary Poppins--a musical based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney film--at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

In Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol, four actors bring to life the characters of Charles Dickens's classic Christmas tale at Jericho Arts Centre. Appropriate for ages five and up.

 

ATTRACTIONS

Mount Seymour features skiing and snowboarding lessons from the Mt. Seymour Ski and Snowboard School, tubing and tobogganing, and snowshoe trails.

Robson Square Ice Rink offers free ice-skating in downtown Vancouver, with skate rental available.

Grouse Mountain resort features a Skyride to the peak with views of Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean, as well as skiing and snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice skating, mountain ziplines, and the Peak of Christmas.

Edgewater Casino offers 24-hour gaming, over 60 table games, a poker room, a high-limit section, 500 slot machines, restaurants and lounges, and live entertainment, including concerts and televised UFC events.

Cypress Mountain features skiing and snowboarding lessons, snowtubing park, cross-country ski trails, downhill skiing and snowboarding trails, and snowshoeing tours.

Check out the Vancouver Christmas Tree at Robson Square.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge features seven suspended footbridges offering views 110 feet above the forest floor.

The Vancouver Aquarium features almost 800 animal species in galleries ranging from Canada's Arctic to the Amazon rainforest.

 

MOVIES

Late-night screening at the Rio Theatre of the Stephen King-based horror-thriller Misery, starring James Caan and Kathy Bates.

Screening of late visionary Polish director Andrzej Żuławski's crazed horror-drama Possession at the Cinematheque.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of The Violin Teacher, about a talented violinist forced to give music classes to teenagers in a public school in the biggest favela of Brazil.

Screening of Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Johnny Ma's genre-morphing drama-thriller Old Stone at the Cinematheque.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of Things to Come, Mia Hansen-Løve's film about an academic who is forced back on her own resources when her husband leaves her, her publisher axes her book series, and her needy mother passes away.

 

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