49 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Friday, May 31

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      Looking for something to do on Friday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 49 events happening in or around Vancouver on Friday, May 31.

       

      CONCERTS

      The David Sikula Trio performs progressive guitar jazz at Tyrant Studios.

      Montreal ska revivalists the Planet Smashers play the Imperial Vancouver, with guests Kman and the 45s.

      London, England reggae-fusion band the Skints play the Biltmore Cabaret, with guest Jesse Royal.

      Live at the Morgue features performances at the Vancouver Police Museum & Archives by FLVRHAUS, Lambsbreath, and Tiny Milkshakes.

      Former Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page plays the Commodore Ballroom, with guests Port Cities.

       

      ETCETERA

      Vans

      Legendary footwear brand Vans hosts the four-day House of Vans Vancouver Pop-Up, featuring live music, skateboard clinics and competitions, art exhibits, a community market, and workshops, at the Harbour Event Centre.

       

      FOOD & DRINK

      Mark Yuen

      Opening day of Vancouver Craft Beer Week, which celebrates its 10th anniversary at various Metro Vancouver locations to June 9.

       

      FORUMS

      The Longhouse Dialogues at Harbour Green Park will focus on missing and murdered Indigenous women, gender and climate change, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, women and girls’ mental health, and the opioid crisis.

       

      SPORTS

      The Vancouver Whitecaps take on Toronto FC in Major League Soccer action at BC Place Stadium.

        

      TAKE ACTION

      TAVIS FORD (CREATIVE COMMONS LICENCE)

      Critical Mass is a monthly bike ride meant to point out that car culture is not the way forward for a healthy and liveable future.

       

      KIDS' STUFF

      The Vancouver International Children's Festival features theatre, music, dance, circus, puppetry and storytelling on Granville Island. Today's performers include Élage Diouf, Fred Penner, and Jamie Adkins (above).

                  

      COMEDY

      Vancouver TheatreSports' Throne and Games—The Last Laugh is an improvised Game of Thrones parody at the Improv Centre on Granville Island.

      Comedian Sam Walker performs the first of two nights of standup at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club.

      Brett Forte leads Team Alberta against Kody Audette's Team B.C. in a roast battle at Yuk Yuk's Comedy Club that includes a set from headliner Jason Rouse.

       

      ARTS ETCETERA

      westvancouver.ca

      Bridge Festival is a two-day multicultural event at West Vancouver’s Ambleside Park that includes interactive cultural pavilions, performances, a beach parade, and food.

      April O'Peel Productions presents Totally Tubular Tease, a night of '80s burlesque, at the Rio Theatre.

      SALON2019 is a three-day exhibition of works by recent UBC School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture graduates at Dudoc Vancouver.

        

      DANCE

      Caravan World Rhythms presents a celebration of African music and dance from Ghana, featuring Adanu Habobo, at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre.

      12 Minutes Max is a showcase of six dance works by up-and-coming local choreographers at Scotiabank Dance Centre.

          

      THEATRE

      Upintheair Theatre presents the rEvolver Festival of independent theatre and performing arts at the Cultch Historic Theatre. Today's shows include Candy Bones Theatre's gender-bending physical comedy Larry (above).

      My Dear Lewis at the Cultch Historic Theatre is a solo puppet show originally developed with support from the Jim Henson Foundation.

      The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Matilda the Musical, an adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel Matilda, at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage.

      Seven Tyrants Theatre concludes its first season in its new theatre space with a remount of Keith Huff's A Steady Rain.

      Performance at the Theatre at Hendry Hall of The Dixie Swim Club, a comedy about five Southern women who set aside a long weekend every August to recharge their relationships.

      Performance at the Annex of Chicken Girl, in which the titular character embarks on a surreal adventure to uncover the mystery surrounding the disappearance of her Uncle Chan.

      Eternal Theatre Collective presents bare, a contemporary pop opera about coming out and growing up, at Unitarian Church of Vancouver. 

      Oh What a Beautiful Morning! is a surreal reimagining of the musical Oklahoma! at the Russian Hall.

       

      GALLERIES

      DEANNA BOWEN, 'THEATRE UNDER THE STARS’ CAST PHOTO FROM FINIAN’S RAINBOW, CIRCA 1953', 2019. COURTESY THE ARTIST, THEATRE UNDER THE STARS AND CECILIA AND ROGER SMITH

      A Harlem Nocturne at the Contemporary Art Gallery presents still and moving images extrapolated and translated from archival sources, featuring a newly commissioned video project drawn from Deanna Bowen’s research into histories of Black community within Vancouver.

      Moving Still: Performative Photography in India at the Vancouver Art Gallery features more than 100 works that examine themes of gender, religion, and sexual identity.

      Displacement at the Vancouver Art Gallery sees contemporary works from the gallery's collection that use “displacement” as a tool to elicit viewer reactions of all kinds. Featured artists include Sonny Assu, Aganetha Dyck, Teresa Marshall, Ken Lum, Robert Therrien, Luanne Martineau, Patrick Traer, Renee van Halm, Holly Ward, Tim Paul, and Myfanwy MacLeod.

      The Polygon Gallery exhibits selected finalists of the Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize

      Influenced by fields of perceptual psychology, science and architecture, Mowry Baden’s works at the Vancouver Art Gallery incorporate objects both found and constructed that incite curiosity, wonder, and laughs.

      Views of the Collection: The Street at the Vancouver Art Gallery focuses on the street as source of inspiration and site for the production and enactment of culture, with works by Roy Arden, Kati Campbell, Robert Capa, Robert Frank, Fred Herzog, Hong Chan Park, Judy Radul, Jack Shadbolt, Danny Singer, and Ian Wallace.

       

      MUSEUMS

      There is Truth Here at the Museum of Vancouver focuses on rare surviving artworks created by children who attended the Inkameep Day School (Okanagan), St Michael’s Indian Residential School (Alert Bay); the Alberni Indian Residential School (Vancouver Island) and Mackay Indian Residential School (Manitoba).

      Shadows, Strings and Other Things: The Enchanting Theatre of Puppets at the MOA illustrates the role puppets have played in the transmission of cultural knowledge, stories, and values.

      In a Different Light: Reflecting on Northwest Coast Art at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC features more than 110 historical indigenous artworks and explores what we can learn from these works and how they relate to indigenous peoples’ relationships to their lands.

      Shakeup: Preserving What We Value at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC explores the convergence of earthquake science and technology with Indigenous knowledge and oral history.

      Haida Now: A Visual Feast of Innovation and Tradition at the Museum of Vancouver is guest-curated by Kwiaahwah Jones and features more than 450 works by carvers, weavers, photographers and print makers, collected as early as the 1890s.

      Wild Things: The Power of Nature in Our Lives at the Museum of Vancouver delves into the life stories of local animals and plants—how they relate to each other and how they connect people to nature in the city.

       

      ATTRACTIONS

      Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden is an authentic representation of an age-old garden tradition that reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty. 

      The 22-hectare VanDusen Botanical Garden features over 255,000 plants from around the world and almost two dozen sculptures.

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

      Parq Vancouver is a 24-hour casino with 600 slot machines and 75 table games, eight restaurants and lounges, and the sixth-floor outdoor Parq.

      North Vancouver's Grouse Mountain features a Skyride to the peak with views of the city and the Pacific Ocean.

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

      Science World features hundreds of interactive exhibits in five permanent galleries, live science demonstrations and workshops, and giant movies in the Omnimax Theatre.

       

      MOVIES

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, director Tasha Hubbard's personal exploration of the death of Colten Boushie, the 22-year-old Cree who was shot and killed by Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley in 2016.

      Screening at the Cinematheque of Wim Wenders' 1977 film The American Friend, starring Dennis Hopper.

      Screening at the Rio Theatre of director Lau Kar-leung's 1994 martial-arts comedy The Legend of Drunken Master, starring Jackie Chan.

       

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

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