VBNF Blog

BC Celebrates Culture Days with hundreds of FREE activities

Vancouver, BC – Hundreds of FREE activities are happening in cities and towns across BC for the second annual Culture Days on September 30 to October 2, 2011. Throughout BC, arts organizations, cultural groups, individual artists, libraries, museums, festivals and municipalities have enthusiastically joined the Culture Days movement to offer hands-on and behind-the-scenes activities exploring music, dance, visual arts, film, history, theatre, literature and much more.

To find out what activities are happening in your community, visit www.culturedays.ca and plan your Culture Days weekend using the Bright Spots Schedule.

On September 30 to October 2, Culture Days invites everyone to participate in and experience the cultural life of our province. It’s more than just a celebration – it’s an opportunity to discover local creators and to find out how culture and the arts enrich our lives and communities.

Culture Days celebrations are taking place in just about every corner of our province from major urban areas to small towns. Here are just a few highlights:

· In Kamloops, join with friends, family, or strike out on your own for a Scavenger Hunt to learn the culture and heritage of Kamloops from public art to the Kamloopa Pow Wow.

· Jump on your cycle for the BIKEnnale Bike Tour’s last ride of the season to discover the amazing outdoor sculptures that are part of the 2009-2011 Vancouver Biennale exhibit, with docents awaiting you at key sculptures.

· Release your inner buccaneer with Pirate School at Centennial Square in Victoria and learn the art of Scrimshaw, create treasure maps, and get “tattooed”.

· Feel like dancing? Here’s a great opportunity to experience a class with a National Ballet Principal Dancer Jillian Vanstone in Nanaimo.

· Join in a multi-generational, multi-cultural community artwork and create a soundscape and banner under the direction of Arts Umbrella on Granville Island, Vancouver.

· If you are a seasoned writer wanting to engage with a colleague, an emerging writer wanting to learn, or an art lover who wants the nuts and bolts of theatre creation unveiled, then head to the Rooftop Garden of the Richmond Arts Centre for an evening Inside the Mind of a Playwright, Lucia Frangione.

“All across the province an abundance of cultural activities are happening for Culture Days, which reflect the incredible vibrancy, diversity and creativity of BC’s communities,” said BC Culture Days Programming Director, Trudy Van Dop. “The outstanding increase in participation this year shows the initiative of the many arts organizations in our creative and cultural communities to create access to a wide range of activities and events for the general public and get us all involved in celebrating BC culture.”

For more details about Culture Days announcements please visit: www.culturedays.ca.

Each year the Taiwan festival celebrates in Vancouver. This year, they have several locations to showcase Taiwanese culture and food.

VBNF took a day off to enjoy the sun and the crowd at the Taiwan Festival in downtown at the Vancouver Art Museum and Granville Street. While the party is for free, and many people did come to enjoy, I found it not as good as the previous years when they held the festival at the Plaza of Nations and featured many dances and performance. Because they have different locations, it was hard for the visitors to go to each location to see what is going on there. I think it also reduce the size of the crowd if all were held at a single location. I personally do not like that. Perhaps, I cannot appreciate the loud music of the rock bands from Taiwan. I would rather like to see dances and lighter music so the youngsters can also enjoy.

I always like Taiwanese good, especially those only from Taiwan. They do have a food culture and know their good. Some are spicy and some are odd. But overall, they have good food and the price is reasonable at a special occasion like this. Many tourists did wonder what was going on at the festival. They also had a good time too. Then they can head on to Robson Street to do some shopping and have a drink or so.

See our picture show during the time of our visit.