By WAHEEDA HARRIS
Osheaga Festival Musique et Arts, Montreal (Photo: ©Tim Snow)
Sure, it’s still technically spring, but if you want to attend some of Canada’s biggest music festivals, you’ll have to get your tickets (and book a hotel or campsite) now. Mark your calendars!
Adam West as Batman
What do Burt Ward (Batman), Adam West (Batman), Kevin Sorbo (Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) and Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk) have in common? They’re all coming to town Apr. 21 and 22 for Fan Expo Vancouver, along with Kristen Bauer (True Blood), Jeremy Bulloch (Star Wars), Nicholas Brendon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Michael Dorn (Star Trek: The Next Generation)—and scores of other pop-culture favourites from film, TV, games, comics and anime. Don your geekiest costume and head to the Vancouver Convention Centre for celebrity autographs and photo ops, workshops and seminars with industry professionals, and panel discussions with sci-fi, fantasy and horror authors. Be sure to check out the sketching duels, in which comic artists go pen to pen to produce original art that immediately goes up for auction. And may the Force be with you.—Sheri Radford
By CARISSA BLUESTONE
Tulips of the Valley Festival, Seabird Island, BC (Photo: Dru!)
The winter jackets may not be in storage yet, but April brings a few harbingers of spring in most of Canada, in the form of daffodils, tulips, flowering trees and those first hardy wildflowers. (more…)
By SHANNON KELLY
Christopher Plummer stars in a one-man show at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival this season (Photo: Andrew Eccles/Stratford Shakespeare Festival)
Think Shakespeare is boring? Think again. First of all, despite its name, the venerable Stratford Shakespeare Festival is featuring only three plays—of fourteen total—by the Bard this year. That may be disappointing for some, but this season promises to be like no other, with a one-man show starring Christopher Plummer (veteran of the festival since 1956); Wanderlust, a world premiere Canadian musical; and MacBeth as performed by characters from The Simpsons (see the video). (more…)
Cherry blossom tree photo by Tom Ryan courtesy Tourism BC
Snow may be falling elsewhere in Canada, but here on the West Coast only cherry blossom petals are falling. In the 1930s, Japan gave Vancouver more than 37,000 ornamental cherry trees. An additional 3,000 trees were planted last year for the city’s quasquicentennial (125th birthday). The annual Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (Apr. 5 to 28) celebrates the delicate pink blooms with a bouquet of special events, everything from zen yoga to heritage walks to bike tours.—Sheri Radford
By MEGHAN WILSON-SMITH
Canadian Tulip Festival (Photo: John Talbot)
As the weather warms in March and April in Ontario, there is a bit more spring in our steps, a renewed bustle on sidewalks and park trails and a general loosening of the scarves.
The Gothard Sisters
Bring along your wee lad and lass to celebrate all things Irish at the 8th annual CelticFest Vancouver (Mar. 10 to 18). Choose from over 50 free and ticketed events, including dancing, scotch tastings and concerts, with performances by the talented trio The Gothard Sisters (pictured)—not only musicians, but Irish dancers, too—and the much-ballyhooed Dehli 2 Dublin, who mix bhangra beats with Celtic fiddles. Head to the massive parade on Mar. 18, a fitting end to St. Patrick’s Day weekend.—Jennifer Patterson
This photo shows actors from Orpheus Musical Theatre Society rehearsing for "Rent."
Friday, March 2
Orpheus Musical Theatre brings its rendition of the Tony Award-winning Rent to the stage. Based on Puccini’s La Bohème, this rock opera follows a group of young, struggling artists trying to make it in New York City. Gritty and modern, the friends face challenges that range from relationships to money to the health threat of HIV and AIDS. See why the musical lasted 12 years on Broadway when this local theatre group takes on the show. (And don’t be surprised if you start humming songs like “La Vie Bohème B” and “Seasons of Love” and dreaming of running away to the Big Apple.) Opening tonight and running until March 11.
In 1971, Pink Floyd played two shows in Quebec, one in Montreal and one in Quebec city, for the first time ever. Celebrate the 40th anniversary of these legendary concerts with the 2011 travelling show Eclipse – The Pink Floyd Story, on at Casino du Lac-Leamy. This commemorative performance demonstrates the band’s evolution, with a live band performing the best of Pink Floyd from the early days to the later years. Moving lights, spectacular lasers, and video projections make this a complete sensory experience.
Enter the musical universe of Kyssi Wète this Friday at the National Arts Centre. Wète mixes the sounds and rhythms of blues, reggae, rumba, soul, raga, and pop to transport his audiences somewhere between France, Jamaica, and the Congo. Using human diversity and relationships as his inspiration, he relays messages of interracial harmony with his unique voice.
Saturday, March 3
Celebrate International Women’s Week on the opening day of the Celebrate HER Charity Music and Art Festival. The festival celebrates outstanding women in the Ottawa community with a week full of art, music, dance, theatre, and spoken word poetry. Check out this year’s centrepiece: the “Amazing Women-Femmes d’exception” photo installation at Alpha Soul Café, which includes women such as University of Ottawa professor Constance Backhouse and children’s author Naomi Guzman Poole. (more…)
Wine glass photo copyright MarkSwallow/Istockphoto
Salud! Raise a glass to the wines of Chile, the focus of the 34th annual Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival (Feb. 27 to Mar. 4). Oenophiles flock to this delicious event, which tempts taste buds with winery dinners, wine seminars and the Bacchanalia Gala Dinner + Auction.—Sheri Radford
Call for prices. Various venues. Tickets 1-877-321-3121. www.playhousewinefest.com
Bonhomme, the Winter Carnival mascot (Photo courtesy of Carnaval de Québec)
The local dish on what to see and do at Québec City’s famed Winter Carnival.
By Amanda Halm
The Québec Winter Carnival, opening this weekend for its 58th year, brings a flurry of wintry activities to Quebec City. It is the city’s version of Mardi Gras, sans debauchery simply because it’s just too darn cold to bare it all. Ice-canoe races, snow baths, zip lining, night parades and more make it one of the most unique festivals in the world. Locals love it, even though swarms of shutter-snapping visitors descend on the city each year. (more…)
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