Rain or not, Vancouver has an unusually packed few days coming up, with everything from a free downtown light festival to a drag-themed murder mystery on the calendar. If you're in town between November 13 and 15, here's what's worth your time.
The standout free option is the Lumière Festival, which turns multiple downtown public spaces into glowing installations with music and storytelling. It runs nightly from 5 to 9.30pm from November 12 to 14, and it won't cost you a cent. Also free: St. Paul's Lights of Hope on Burrard Street, a festive light display that has run for nearly three decades and raises money for the St. Paul's Foundation, on through to December 31.
If you want light with a ticket price, Astra Lumina has just made its Canadian debut in Stanley Park — a self-guided night walk through nine themed zones of projections, soundscapes and star-themed storytelling, running until March 13 with entry from $27.20. You can reach it via the historic Stanley Park bus loop.
Theatre fans have two solid picks. On Granville Island, the Arts Club is staging Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors — a spoof where the count bakes cakes and the heroine craves adventure — until November 15, tickets from $29. Over at the Improv Centre, Murder is a Drag puts a wedding-set murder mystery in the hands of an all-drag cast of suspects, with audience members pulled in as wedding guests. One show only, Sunday at 1.30pm, $40.
Big-ticket spectacle comes via Cirque du Soleil's Luzia at 88 Pacific Boulevard, set in a dreamlike version of Mexico with acrobatics and vivid visuals. It runs until January 10, with seats from $92. On the music side, Grammy-winning South African star Tyla brings her A*Pop World Tour to town on Sunday at 8pm, tickets from $77.55.
Families aren't left out. The Vancouver Aquarium's Holiday Splash adds Scuba Claus dive shows and a jellyfish snow globe to the usual line-up, daily until January 3 ($41.95-$57.95). Science World's Robot Zoo exhibition uses animatronic animals — a hunting squid, a giant grasshopper — to explain how real creatures work, built from repurposed household and industrial parts ($37.50 adults).
For adrenaline types, the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival Fall Series screens at the Rio and Centennial Theatre from November 13 to 22, including world premieres of five films set in some of the planet's wildest corners. Opening night is $32.
The mix is a good argument for a shoulder-season city break here: you can fill a weekend with a light festival, a show and an aquarium visit without renting a car, since most venues sit on the downtown peninsula or Granville Island. Book the Tyla show and Murder is a Drag ahead — both are single-date events — and pack a rain shell for Lumière and Astra Lumina, which run regardless of the weather.
Story via Curiocity.
