Looking for something to do on Friday? The Straight’s got you covered. Here are 53 events happening in or around Vancouver on Friday, February 21.

CONCERTS 

Day One of the three-day Winter Jazz at Performance Works features performances by Lydia Hol and Dawn Pemberton (above).

Dutch pianist and composer Joep Beving plays the WISE Hall.

Brooklyn-based Afrobeat collective, Antibalas, plays the Rickshaw Theatre.

Benefit for The West Moberly First Nations at the Russian Hall features performances by Combine the Victorious, Eddy D and the Sex Bombs, the Reluctants, Sparky Spurr, and Stacy Gallagher.

Tom Lavin & the Legendary Powder Blues play the first of two nights at White Rock's Blue Frog Studios.

Postdisco recording artist from Australia, Donny Benét, plays the Fox Cabaret.

Local singer-songwriter Roy Forbes performs tunes from new album Edge of Blue at St. James Hall.

The 17-piece South Van Big Band performs big-band jazz at the Hood 29.

Canadian pop-rockers from the '80s, Platinum Blonde, play the Commodore Ballroom.

A night of hard-bop jazz featuring pianist Charlie Austin at Seven Tyrant Studios.

ETCETERA

The B.C. Home + Garden Show at BC Place Stadium features an appearance by renovation expert and TV personality Bryan Baeumler.

KIDS' STUFF

Performance at Waterfront Theatre of BEEP, a story about unexpected friendship, finding where you fit, and learning how to mix things up.

SPORTS

The Vancouver Giants take on the Calgary Hitmen in Western Hockey League action at Langley Events Centre.

COMEDY

JFL NorthWest features standup comedy, podcasts, improv, film and sketch performances at various Vancouver venues until February 25. Performers tonight include Bill Burr (above) at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, Ron Funches at the Rio Theatre, Tim Billon at Rick Bronson's House of Comedy, Dulcé Sloan at Yuk Yuk's Vancouver, and Brendan Schaub at the Vogue Theatre.

Vancouver TheatreSports features two teams of players pitted against each other in competitive improv matches at Granville Island's Improv Centre.

604 Records presents a monthly comedy showcase, Comedy Here Often, at 604 Studios.

ARTS ETCETERA

Forget Me Not is a new Ronnie Burkett production at a secret location that lets each audience member hold a one-of-a-kind Burkett hand puppet and become part of a puppet chorus that propels the story as it unfolds.

The Talking Stick Festival is a celebration of Indigenous artistry from around the world, featuring theatrical performances, music, dance, visual art, film, and spoken word at various Vancouver venues through February 29.

THEATRE

Performance at the Firehall Arts Centre of Talking Sex on Sunday, a new musical comedy by Sara-Jeanne Hosie & Nico Rhodes in which women share fears and find the power of friendship.

Performance at Presentation House of God's Lake, about people in remote Manitoba dealing with unresolved justice and a complex past.

Performance at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage of Noises Off, a farce about the egos and insecurities of a second-tier acting troupe putting on a show.

The Sisters of Perpetual Sewing return in Tom Smith's Drinking Habits 2: Caught in the Act at Queen's Park's Bernie Legge Theatre.

Performance at the Granville Island Stage of Cipher, a play about a forensic toxicologist trying to solve a Vancouver Island cold-case murder.

Boone Dog Productions presents a performance of Steel Magnolias, a tale of camaraderie that follows six Southern belles and their steadfast friendships.

GALLERIES

Cindy Sherman at the Vancouver Art Gallery explores the development of Sherman’s work from the beginning of her career in the mid-1970s to the present day, with selections from each of her major series, including new and rarely seen works.

Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree of Life: Emily Carr and Her Female Contemporaries at the Vancouver Art Gallery is drawn primarily from the gallery’s permanent collection.

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.

The Sodomite, Invasion Experimentation, Politics and Sexuality in the work of Jimmy DeSana and Marlon T. Riggs runs until April 25 at North Van's Griffin Art Projects.

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.

Acts of Resistance at the Museum of Vancouver showcases the artwork of seven indigenous artist activists from the Pacific Northwest, whose designs flew from the Iron Workers Memorial bridge on July 3, 2018.

Playing with Fire: Ceramics of the Extraordinary at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC showcases ceramic works by 11 B.C.-based artists expressing strong opinions on urgent social issues.

Ship's Company: The Royal Canadian Navy at Work & Play at the Vancouver Maritime Museum features photography by Kathryn Mussallem celebrating the diverse humanity of Canadian naval forces. 

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, plus ziplines, skiing and snowboarding, a sliding zone, snowshoeing, and a skating pond.

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

Granville Island in False Creek features a public market, artisan gift shops, studios, galleries, microbrewery tours, and is home to the Arts Club Theatre and Vancouver TheatreSports.

Hastings Racecourse features indoor and outdoor viewing of live thoroughbreed racing, simulcast betting, restaurants and lounges, and a gaming floor with over 600 slot machines. 

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.

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.

North Vancouver's Mount Seymour features skiing and snowboarding, lessons, chairlifts, terrain parks, 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.

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.

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

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.

West Vancouver's Lighthouse Park features 10 kilometres of hiking trails, picnic areas, guided walks, and the historical 1912 Point Atkinson Lighthouse with viewpoint.

Richmond's Steveston Village is an historic fishing village that's home to the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site, the Britannia Shipyards National Historic Site, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Steveston Museum, the Steveston Tram, and London Heritage Farm.

MOVIES

Late-night screening at the Rio Theatre of writer-director Jason Lei Howden's kinetic 2019 action flick Guns Akimbo, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving.

Screenings at Vancity Theatre of the documentaries Because We Are Girls, Conviction, Toxic Beauty, and Killing Patient Zero as part of the KDocs Film Festival.

Screening at the Cinematheque of Vagabond, Agnès Varda’s poetic drama about the final days of a defiant young drifter in France's Languedoc-Roussillon wine country.

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