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West End

Event

Unsilent Night

Dec 20, 2009

Meet at 7 p.m. under the lit-up tree by English Bay (Beach Ave. and Bidwell St.) for the city's annual music-mash nighttime march. Bring a portable music player with external speakers; plug in the track that's dispersed on tapes, CDs, and MP3 files; and follow the crowd of hundreds through the streets toward Robson Square.

Event

The Diorama Party

Dec 5, 2009

The alt-indie party of the holiday season (with a distinctly queer tone) steps into its largest venue yet this year. 400 tickets are being sold to fill Celebrities Nightclub (not bad for a do that started 19 years ago in the living room of its founders, Janine Fuller and Julie Stines). Subversive drag numbers and acrobatic silk performances keep things lively. And when you're ready for a rest, retire to the Diorama Tree, where 20-odd designers have constructed (usually sick-and-twisted) holiday scenarios, in painstaking detail.

Davie Street Pub Crawl

One good drink deserves another. Turn a night out into a proper crawl with this West End itinerary. Just don’t blame us in the morning

Cupcakes

All the neat little cupcakes standing to attention are parties in themselves. Pick up half a dozen ($16) or a dozen minis ($13) in flavours like Obsession, 24 Carrot, and Blue Hawaii and see how many actually make it home. Nothing organic here—they’re just like Mom used to make.

The Pumpjack

Time was, a newbie at PJ would have his underwear snipped off by a friendly barman—a hallowed rite of initiation. The briefs were then hung, with hundreds of others, from ropes overhead. While that tradition has ceased, the village’s preferred pub still has a gregarious, guffawing, flirty crowd. Bears and leathermen convene on weekend nights, but PJ also operates as a neighborhood joint where all sorts take their post-work bevvie. Lineups for the Sunday afternoon kegger are infamous—you’ll want to arrive plenty early.

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