Looking for something to do on Friday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 56 events happening in or around Vancouver on Friday, August 16.

CONCERTS

Juno-winning electropop singer-songwriter Lights plays the Vogue Theatre.

Honeymoon Suite, Streetheart, and Headpins play the first day of the three-day Rock Ambleside Park music festival.

Elvis Presley tribute show at the Royal Canadian Legion #263 features Eli Williams and Ben Klein.

American-Canadian boy band PrettyMuch plays the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, with guest Mackenzie Ziegler.

Burnaby singer-songwriter Antonio Laroso plays Railway Stage & Beer Café, with guests FKB, the Sophistocrats, and the Statistics.

Saskatchewan country-folk singer-songwriter Colter Wall plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

The Neil Gray Quintet performs classic and progressive jazz at Tyrant Studios.

BENEFITS

The three-day RibFest Langley at McLeod Athletic Park features tasty ribs, live music, local craft beer, and family entertainment, with proceeds to Rotary Club community projects in Langley.

ETCETERA

The Downtown New West BIA and Douglas College present Fridays on Front, a street social will featuring live entertainment, artisan vendors, and food trucks on the 600 block of Front Street.

The Shipyards Friday Night Market features an artisan market, food trucks, live music, and beer gardens in North Van's historic Shipyards District.

FOOD AND DRINK

Louis-Jerome Doise, single malt specialist with Whyte & Mackay, presents a special selection from Jura Whisky at the Spirits Speaker Series at Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre.

COMEDY

Classic TheatreSports at the Improv Centre sees two teams of performers pitted against each other in competitive improv matches.

ARTS ETCETERA

The Clock is a 24-hour video screening at the Polygon that montages film and television footage from the last 70 years.

The two-day Madskillz Vancouver Juggling Festival at the Roundhouse Community Centre features workshops and performances by hoopers, jugglers, flow dancers, prop manipulators, clowns, and ground-level circus artists.

A Nude Hope: A Sci-Fi Burlesque Adventure is a Star Wars burlesque parody at the Red Gate Revue Stage.

The Vines Art Festival is an outdoor performing arts and land-justice festival taking place at various Vancouver venues, with today's event, Resilient Roots, happening at Trout Lake Park.

LocoMotoArt presents S.P.A.C.E.: Spirits + People + Animals + Creatures + Echoes, an exhibition that combines static indoor-gallery style exhibition and outdoor digital installations, at McBride Park.

MUSIC

The Blueridge Chamber Festival presents the Erato Ensemble performing Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes and Piano Quartet in G Minor at the Orpheum Annex.

THEATRE

Final day of the Ensemble Theatre Company's seventh annual Summer Repertory Festival features a performance of the comedy Superior Donuts at Jericho Arts Centre.

Beach House Theatre presents an outdoor performance of Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, Romeo & Juliet, at Crescent Beach's Blackie Spit.

Vagrant Players presents a performance at the Nest on Granville Island of Disgraced, about a corporate lawyer whose career and personal life begin to slowly unravel.

Performance at Bard on the Beach of The Taming of the Shrew, inspired by the 2007 spaghetti-western version of Shakespeare's work.

Theatre Under the Stars presents a performance of Mamma Mia! at Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park.

Promethean Theatre presents a performance at Stage Door of Of Mice and Men, a collaboration between artists with disabilities and those without disabilities.

The Rusted Cage Theatre Lab. presents Edward Albee's classic story of human disconnection and class division, The Zoo Story, at Havana Theatre.

GALLERIES

Robert Rauschenberg 1965-1980 at the Vancouver Art Gallery features rarely seen prints, drawings, collages, sculptural works, and large-scale works from one of the most experimental periods in the artist's career.

Metalmorphosis at Visualspace Gallery is a sculptural exhibition from metal artists Kye-Yeon Son and Brian Hoyano, curated by Barbara Cohen.

Vicky Alexander: Extreme Beauty at the Vancouver Art Gallery features photography, sculpture, collage, and installation, including new massive murals created in 2019.

Alberto Giacometti: A Line Through Time at the Vancouver Art Gallery features more than 130 paintings, sculptures, drawings, and lithographs from the artist’s pre- and postwar career. 

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.

Views of the Collection: The Street at the Vancouver Art Gallery focuses on the street as a 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

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 printmakers, collected as early as the 1890s.

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 Museum of Anthropology at UBC illustrates the role puppets have played in the transmission of cultural knowledge, stories, and values.

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.

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.

ATTRACTIONS

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

Kits Pool, Vancouver's only saltwater swimming pool, is 137 metres long and features a water park, two slides, cafes, and lockers. 

Capilano Suspension Bridge features seven cable bridges suspended in trees, the Living Forest exhibit, totem-pole collection, Cliffwalk, and Treetop Adventure. 

The B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum features permanent galleries devoted to Terry Fox and Rick Hansen, a rock-climbing wall, a virtual sports simulator, and history galleries.

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

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.

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 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.

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

Stanley Park features 400 hectares of trails, with scenic walking and biking along the 8.8-kilometre seawall and totem park featuring eight poles by First Nations artists.

Nitobe Memorial Garden is a traditional Japanese garden located at the University of British Columbia with waterfalls, stone lanterns, audio guides and tours, and a ceremonial teahouse.

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

MOVIES

Screening at the Cinematheque of director Fritz Lang's nihilistic 1953 noir The Big Heat, starring Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford.

Late-night screening at the Rio Theatre of Tobe Hooper's groundbreaking 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

West Point Grey Community Centre and Fresh Air Cinema presents a free screening at Trimble Park of the family film Dr. Seuss' The Grinch.

The Reel 2 Real International Film Festival for Youth presents a free screening at Ron Basford Park of family film Song of the Sea.

Screening at Vancity Theatre of director Mads Brügger's chilling expose Cold Case Hammarskjöld, which digs into the mysterious death of United Nations Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld.

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