Arts and Culture

5 Things to Do in Vancouver This Week (August 24-30)

By Alyssa Hirose /

1. See a (Virtual) Outdoor Cooking Demo

New episode launches today

Local executive chef and pro forager David Furlonger leads you through the most elegant of outdoor cooking experiences in Food Tastes Better Outside, a new video series by Ecologyst. This week’s episode features the making of ceviche cooked right on the beach—you can’t get much fresher. While you’re waiting for today’s episode, you can binge the first two (mountaintop braised vegetables and beach ramen).

    When: Anytime
    Where: Online
    Cost: Free
    More Info: youtube.com

    2. Get Fair Food on Wheels

    August 25 to 29

    You can check out PNE food in drive-thru form this week (probably the most efficient way to try every deep-fried, flash-frozen and chocolate-dipped delicacy the fair has to offer). It’s not the most wallet-friendly activity ($25 a carload, and food is extra) but entry also gets you two passes to next year’s fair, so you can mark your calendars in advance. Sounds like all of the fair food goodness without the motion sickness—well, depending on how smooth a driver you are.

      When: Tuesday, August 25 to Saturday, August 29 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
      Where: PNE/Playland
      Cost: $25 per carload
      More Info: pne.ca

      3. Catch an Open-Air Concert

      Weekends through September 27

      Luckily, six feet apart is the ideal (if not minimum—take care of your eardrums) distance at which live music can be enjoyed. The Firehall Arts Centre’s courtyard concert series has max 40 audience members and new performers every week, and it’s one of the only spots in the city you can get a concert-esque experience right now. Up this Thursday is Elle Wolf, whose galactic synth pop tunes are like “sitting on Mars sipping an old fashioned while reminiscing on past lovers and and the interstellar connections that could be flying your way at any moment”— whatever that means. Count our curiosity as piqued.

        When: Weekends at 7:00 p.m. through September 27
        Where: Firehall Arts Centre
        Cost: $20
        More Info: firehallartscentre.ca

        4. “Watch” The Wrong Bashir

        August 28

        See a live reading of Zahida Rahemtulla’s newest play, The Wrong Bashir, on Zoom this Friday. The comedy stars an Ismaili family whose son, Bashir, is selected to be a religious leader—but he hasn’t quite been keeping up with his religious studies. Hijinks and hilarity follows, of course.

          When: Friday August 28 at 6:00 p.m.
          Where: Online
          Cost: Free
          More Info: vact.ca

          5. Catch a Painting Premiere

          August 29 to October 10

          Russna Kaur is one of three artists opening new exhibitions at the Burrard Arts Foundation this week (don’t miss Cara Guri and Olivia di Liberto’s exhibits, too). The work featured above is from a 2019 display called ‘Ironing, bored’—and that’s the sort of confrontation and cleverness you can expect from her newest endeavours, all of which are rooted in modernist abstraction and South Asian material culture.

            When: Opens Saturday, August 29
            Where: Burrard Arts Foundation Gallery
            Cost: Free
            More Info: burrardarts.org

            Alyssa Hirose

            Alyssa Hirose

            Alyssa Hirose is a Vancouver-based writer, editor, illustrator and comic artist. Her work has been featured in Vancouver magazine, Western Living, BCBusiness, Avenue, Serviette, Geist, BCLiving, Nuvo, Montecristo, The Georgia Straight and more. Her beats are food, travel, arts and culture, style, interior design and anything dog-related. She publishes a daily autobiographical comic on Instagram at @hialyssacomics.