The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will kick off its 100th anniversary season with a free, outdoor concert at Sunset Beach Park on July 14.

The Vancouver board of parks and recreation and the VSO hope to make the all-ages Symphony at Sunset an annual event.

There will be food trucks on site, and members of the public are invited to bring a picnic, a blanket, and, if necessary, low chairs so as not to obstruct the view of other audience members.

The board and the VSO said in the joint announcement today that it will be alcohol and smoke-free.

Student ensembles from the VSO School of Music will give a preconcert starting at 7:15 p.m.

The sunset concert performed by the VSO runs from 8:30 to 10 p.m., with the program spanning everything from music by Leonard Bernstein to excerpts from Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and John Williams’s Star Wars. 

The event will mark the first free outdoor VSO concert in Vancouver since 2011, when the ensemble played in Stanley Park for th city's 125^th anniversary. The symphony will also play an open-air concert in Whistler over Canada Day weekend and at Burnaby’s Deer Lake Park on July 8.  

"We are thrilled to kick off the VSO's 100th Anniversary Celebrations in partnership with the Vancouver Park Board in a setting that will combine the scenic assets of our city with the cultural assets of our symphony," said Kelly Tweeddale, president of the Vancouver Symphony Society and VSO School of Music in the announcement today. "In the great cities of the world, free concerts like this become a place where families can come together and experience the magnitude of a symphony performance and build lasting traditions. As we embark on the VSO's next century, we hope that this will become a Vancouver tradition." 

The park board and the VSO estimate that more than 7,000 people will attend Symphony at Sunset. As in all major events in Vancouver’s downtown core, the public are encouraged to walk, cycle or take public transit to Sunset Beach Parkd.