55 things to do in Metro Vancouver on Sunday, October 20

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      Looking for something to do on Sunday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 55 events happening in or around Vancouver on Sunday, October 20.

       

      CONCERTS

      Regina folk-bluegrass group the Dead South plays the second of two nights at the Commodore Ballroom.

      Vocalist Alison Hogan performs a joyful romp through the early years of the Billie Holiday songbook at Frankie's Jazz.

       

      ETCETERA

      21ST CENTURY PROMOTIONS

      The Retro Design & Antiques Fair at the Croatian Cultural Centre features 185 tables of vintage and estate jewelry, pop-culture classics, retro-glam accessories, 50's kitsch, paintings, prints, and memorabilia.

      The Pumpkin Patch at Richmond Country Farms features pumpkins, a live band, a wagon ride, and an animal farm.

      The 40th annual Fall Mushroom Show at VanDusen Botanical Garden Floral Hall features displays of identified mushrooms and other fungi, mushroom-cooking demos and tastings, food and craft vendors, and book sales.

       

      FOOD AND DRINK

      PASTA BOY PETER

      Learn how to make pillowy potato gnocchi at a cooking class led by Peter Ciuffa at Kitsilano Community Centre.

      Cannery Farmers' Market at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site features local food and artisan merchants.

       

      FORUMS

      Learn simple bookbinding techniques that can be used to produce your own zines at Mobil Art School.

      Doña María Apaza shares her insights on the importance of protecting the sacred knowledge from the Andes Mountains of Peru at Banyen Books and Sound.

       

      KIDS' STUFF

      The Stanley Park Ghost Train takes kids into the mystical and magical world of Alice in Nightmareland, with tombs, tombstones, crypts, and catacombs.

                    

      COMEDY

      The Scrawny Show features Vancouver standup comedians at the ANZA Club.

      It Came From A Suggestion at the Havana Theatre features Halloween-inspired improv comedy.

      Jump on a bus with masked Mexican Luchador El Jaguar for an “alternative facts” tour of Vancouver as part of the International TheatreSports Festival.

      The Sunday Service is a weekly improv-comedy show at the Fox Cabaret.

       

      ARTS ETCETERA

      The two-day First Pick Handmade Home Décor at Heritage Hall is a home-goods marketplace featuring works by more than 30 local artisans.

      The two-day 10 Dimensions Art Show and Sale at the South Surrey Recreation and Arts Centre features original artworks in a variety of media.

      Cirque du Soleil presents a performance of Luzia under the Grand Chapiteau (Big Top) at Concord Pacific Place.


      DANCE

      Facebook/The Smoke Show

      The Smoke Show is an interactive dance-cabaret show at Central Studios integrating Motown, jazz, rock, and burlesque.

        

      MUSIC

      Glorious Strings features performances by Quebec's Saguenay String Quartet (above) and B.C.'s Lafayette String Quartet at the Kay Meek Arts Centre.

      Early Music Vancouver and UBC School of Music present a performance by the piano and flute act Artemisia Duo at Knox United Church.

      The West Coast Symphony Orchestra joins conductor Hal Beckett, the Phoenix Chamber Choir, and solo violinist Nancy DiNovo for a program of Halloween Movie Music at Centennial Theatre.

      The Vancouver Guitar Duo (Staton Jack and Louise Southwood) performs a concert entitled Da Capo: Guitar Through the Ages at Roedde House Museum.

       

      THEATRE

      David Cooper

      Performance at Richmond's Gateway Theatre of China Doll, a coming-of-age story about a young girl’s path to freedom through books and reading.

      Vagabond Players present a performance at New Westminster's Bernie Legge Theatre of Terror By Gaslight.

      Naked Goddess Productions presents its final performance at Jericho Arts Centre of Dancing Lessons, about a professor with autism who approaches his neighbour for a dancing lesson.

      Performance at the Goldcorp Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre of Cost of Living, a Pulitzer Prize–winning play about relationships and living with physical disabilities.

      Mitch & Murray Productions presents its final performance of Annie Baker's comedy Body Awareness, directed by Aaron Craven.

      Final performance at Surrey Arts Centre of Bed & Breakfast, a comedy about being out and finding home.

      Performance at Bobby's Apartment of Company, an immersive production about Bobby’s life as a bachelor, told in the context of his 35th birthday.

      Stage 43 Theatrical Society presents a performance at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre of The Creature Creeps, a throwback to classic (and campy) Hollywood horror.

      Performance at the Historic Theatre of Hold These Truths, starring Joel de la Fuente as Gordon Hirabayashi, a U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient who fought against the mass incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during WWII.

       

      GALLERIES

      Without a Word at the Polygon presents a selection of portrait photographs from the private collection of Bill Wu, including works by Berenice Abbott, Robert Doisneau, Walker Evans, Graciela Iturbide, and Mary Ellen Mark.

      Transits and Returns at the Vancouver Art Gallery explores the dynamic between place and movement in the work of twenty-one Indigenous artists from around the Pacific.

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

      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.

      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).

      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.

       

      ATTRACTIONS

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

      Potter’s House of Horrors, one of the Lower Mainland’s largest Halloween attractions, features two ultra-scary haunted houses and one geared for kids 12 and under.

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

      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.

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

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

      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.

      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.

      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.

       

      MOVIES

      Screening at the Rio Theatre of director Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time In...Hollywood, about a faded television actor and his stunt double in 1969 L.A.

      Screening at Vancity Theatre of Colombian director Alejandro Landes's thriller Monos, about eight adolescent rebel guerillas keeping watch over their American hostage.

      Screening at the Cinematheque of Through the Olive Trees, director Abbas Kiarostami’s film about a movie crew travelling to Iran’s earthquake-stricken north to shoot his previous film.

       

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

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