62 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Saturday, April 1

Looking for something to do on Saturday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 62 events happening in or around Vancouver on Saturday, April 1.

 

CONCERTS

Tennessee rock band Colony House plays the Biltmore Cabaret, touring in support of latest album Only the Lonely. 

Asia on Tour at Venue showcases Japan's Miyavi, Thailand's Slot Machine, and Korea's Kiha and the Faces. 

Local jazz ensemble the Urbana Big Band plays Vancouver Public Library's Alice MacKay Room under the direction of Robin Schier.

Affordable Concert at the Rio Theatre features music by River's Divide, Mojo Stars, and the Ray Roper Project.

Canadian father-and-son rock duo Bill and Joel Plaskett plays the Vogue, with guests Mayhemingways.

Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience at Rogers Arena uses music, footage from the show, and exclusively created imagery to take viewers on a journey through the seven kingdoms of Westeros.

 

BENEFITS

Circo Disco 1.0 at the Odyssey features house music from across the globe and a Rocky Horror Picture Show number performed by Geekenders members, with proceeds to the Health Initiative for Men (HIM) Transitions Program. 

Community-based clothing and craft sale at the Biltmore Cabaret raises funds for WAVAW-Rape Crisis Centre.

 

ETCETERA

Bring a soft, feather-filled pillow and take part in a pillow-fight flash mob in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Browse 40 tables of coins, stamps and collectibles at Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.

OneLove Wedding Experience at the Yaletown Roundhouse Exhibition Hall features a fashion show, exhibitor showcase, prizes, champagne, and a dance party.

 

FOOD & DRINK

Take part in a 60-minute vinyasa yoga class, followed by a hearty vegetarian brunch handcrafted by natural chefs, at Kits Neighbourhood House.

 

KIDS' STUFF

The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, the North Shore Black Bear Society, and CapU EarthWorks present bear-themed activities such as music, a puppet show, storytelling, face painting, and interpretive walks at Capilano University.

Find bargains on gently used children's items including books, clothing, toys, strollers, and miscellaneous items at Thompson Community Centre's Kids Only Swap Meet.

 

TAKE ACTION

Rally and benefit for B.C. Green Party candidate Joe Keithley at the Rickshaw features local punk-rock legends D.O.A. and guests Roots Roundup, Wett Stilletos, and Childsplay.

 

COMEDY

Comedy by headliner Fatima Dhowre at XYVR, with guests Jackie Hoffart, Liz Johnson, Katie Nordgen, Jess Rather, Robin Crowe, Jess Latty, Brandon Lefebvre, Shoshana, Emma Helinski Cooper, Marline Swidzinski, and Mike Whittaker. 

Comedian Jason Rouse performs the third of three nights of standup at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

Comedian Sarah Tiana performs the third of three nights of standup at the Comedy Mix.

Sketch comedy from female power duo Brunch at the Toast Collective.

 

ARTS ETCETERA

Launch party at the Contemporary Art Gallery for the Capture Photography Festival, which aims to nurture emerging talent, engage community, and spark public dialogue about photography as an art form and a vessel for communication.

The Vancouver International Burlesque Festival, featuring headliners Poison Ivory and Bazuka Joe, takes place at the Vancouver Playhouse.

 

DANCE

Raíces y Alas Flamenco presents the premiere of del Mar, a multimedia collaboration that centres around the theme of water, at the Waterfront Theatre.

SCA Repertory Dancers present the final performance at Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre of Women Marching!, featuring the work of Yossi Berg and Oded Graf Dance Theatre, Henry Daniel and Marla Eist, Judith Garay, Vanessa Goodman, and Wen Wei Wang.

 

LITERARY

Mohawk poet and former Victoria poet laureate Janet Rogers revisits E. Pauline Johnson's Legends of Vancouver at Vancouver Public Library.

The three-day LitFest New West features readings, storytelling, workshops, amateur podcasters, authors, and poets at various New Westminster venues.

 

MUSIC

James Gaffigan conducts violinist Henning Kraggerud and the Vancouver Symphony in a program of Brucker's Symphony No. 7 in E Major and Mozart's Adagio and Fugue in C Minor and Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major at the Orpheum Theatre.

UBC Symphonic Wind Ensemble and UBC Concert Winds perform works by Bates, Bryant, Mackey, Newman, Shapiro, and Whitacre at Chan Shun Concert Hall.

Vancouver Cantonese Opera presents Romance of the Phoenix Chamber at Burnaby's Michael J. Fox Theatre. Performance includes English and Cantonese subtitles.

 

GALLERIES

Pacific Crossings at the Vancouver Art Gallery features works from well-known Hong Kong artists created after their relocation to Vancouver throughout the 1960-90s.

Oh, How I Long For Home Marianne Nicolson's installation at the Teck Gallery, addresses a persistent idea of the city as a conflicted promise for indigenous people.

Sonny Assu creates a new series of digital tags on a body of Emily Carr paintings at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Susan Point: Spindle Whorl at the Vancouver Art Gallery surveys Point’s entire career through more than a hundred artworks that take the spindle whorl as their starting point.

Retainers of Anarchy at the Vancouver Art Gallery features new work from Howie Tsui that considers wuxia as a narrative tool for dissidence and resistance.

 

MUSEUMS

Amazonia: The Rights of Nature at at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features Amazonian basketry, textiles, carvings, feather works, and ceramics both of everyday and of ceremonial use, representing indigenous, Maroon, and white settler communities.

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.

 

THEATRE

Performance at the Firehall Arts Centre of Refuge, Mary Vingoe's provocative story of the pitfalls of seeking sanctuary in today’s suspicious world, directed by Donna Spencer.

Performance at Studio 58 of The Refugee Hotel, writer-director Carmen Aguirre's dark comedy about eight Chilean exiles who struggle with the effects of fleeing their homeland.

Puppeteer provocateur Ronnie Burkett and his resident company of over 40 marionettes perform The Daisy Theatre at the Cultch.

Fabulist Theatre presents Songs For a New World--a song cycle exploring themes of immigration, war, motherhood, poverty, and the singular moments that transform our lives--at PAL Theatre.

Hardline Productions presents the world premiere at Presentation House Theatre of Redpatch, Raes Calvert and Sean Harris Oliver's historical drama about a young Métis volunteer soldier deployed to fight in World War I.

United Players present a performance at the Jericho Arts Centre of The Train Driver Athol Fugard's exploration of guilt, suffering, redemption, and the powerful bonds that grow between strangers.

The Sidekick Players present a performance at Tsawwassen Arts Centre of Twelve Angry Men, Reginald Rose's 1954 teleplay about the jury at a murder trial of a young man accused of the fatal stabbing of his father.

Vagabond Players presents the Western Canadian premiere at Bernie Legge Theatre of Vinci, a play that sees Leonardo da Vinci's father and mother battle for his affections.

Performance at Deep Cove Shaw Theatre of Marion Bridge, Daniel MacIvor’s play about three estranged sisters who reunite in their family home on Cape Breton Island to say goodbye to their dying mother.

Performance at Studio 58 of Zoetrope: The Curiosity of Puppet Oddities, in which students use three-person, shadow, and object puppetry to tell a story of love and death.

The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Part One: Millenium Approaches at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

 

ATTRACTIONS

The Deeley Motorcycle Exhibition features over 250 privately-owned bikes from around the world.

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

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.

Take a ride in an exterior glass elevator and get a 360° view of Metro Vancouver and the North Shore mountains at Vancouver Lookout.

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.

At the Bloedel Conservatory you can take in more than 200 free-flying exotic birds and 500 exotic plants and flowers.

The 22-hectare VanDusen Botanical Garden features over 255,000 plants from around the world, a restaurant, a garden shop, and a horticulture library. 

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

Soar from coast-to-coast across the Canadian landscape with a 25-minute ride featuring effects such as wind and scents at FlyOver Canada.

Lighthouse Park features 10 kilometres of hiking trails, picnic areas, guided walks provided by the Lighthouse Park Preservation Society, and the historical 1912 Point Atkinson Lighthouse.

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

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

 

MOVIES

The Just Film Festival at Vancity Theatre features 14 documentaries about social justice and human rights, including Mali Blues.

Morning screening at the Rio Theatre of Apparition Hill, Sean Bloomfield's 2016 documentary in which seven strangers investigate the place in Bosnia-Herzegovina where six children claim to have witnessed apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1981.

Screening at the Cinematheque of works from Eric Rohmer's Six Moral Tales, a cycle of films made between 1962 and 1972.

Screening at the Rio Theatre of director Claude Barras's acclaimed stop-motion animation film My Life as a Zucchini. 

 

For all the latest Metro Vancouver event announcements and updates follow @VanHappenings.