Chill Out guide: a flurry of winter arts fests
In Vancouver, everybody knows by now that festival season isn’t confined to the summertime months. Well into February, artful lanterns light up the long nights, the city hosts one of the country’s most daring performance series, and Indigenous creations take centre stage around town.
Here are some of the midwinter arts celebrations warming up the damp chill over the next few weeks.
PUSH INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL
(At various venues to February 9)
The interdisciplinary festival continues, saving some of its most buzzworthy shows till last, from across Canada and the globe. Highlights: Monday Nights offers up interactive b-ball action on the court (February 6 to 9 at New Westminster’s Anvil Centre); Dana Gingras and Animals of Distinction’s Frontera brings a blast of sculpted light and alternative-electro-rock sound to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre stage (January 30); and for the truly avant-garde, Canadian dance artist Dana Michel crawls, rolls, vocalizes, and lays herself bare in Cutlass Spring (February 6 to 8 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre).
LUNARFEST
(At Jack Poole Plaza until February 9 and at Oakridge Centre until February 10)
This event has been celebrating the Year of the Rat in diverse style, with everything from music performances to family-friendly activities. Highlights: Indigenous art meets Asian culture in a mesmerizing array of Coastal Lunar Lanterns, at Jack Poole Plaza. Check out Musqueam artist Thomas Cannell’s Salish Sea and Tsleil-Waututh artist Zachary George’s Protector of the Mountain—two inspiring examples of local Indigenous culture.
WINTER WANDER
(At Vanier Park on February 8)
The Vancouver Maritime Museum, Museum of Vancouver, City of Vancouver Archives, Vancouver Academy of Music, and H.R. MacMillan Space Centre come together
to throw a seasonal celebration, complete with special activities, musical performances, and even food trucks on-site. Highlights:
Haida interpreter Lia Hart brings to life the Haida Now exhibition at the MoV all day, and you can check out winter-sky presentations at the planetarium and the VAM Symphony Orchestra’s open-door rehearsal.
JFL NORTHWEST
(At various venues from February 13 to 25)
The fifth edition of the comedy fest serves up big standup names like Bill Burr, Hannah Gadsby, Patton Oswalt, and Jessica Kirson, alongside live podcasts, an intimate In Conversation Series with the likes of Margaret Cho and Bobcat Goldthwait, and more. Highlights: If you watched the 2018 Netflix hit Nanette, you know why the fest has added an extra show by Tasmanian monologist Gadsby (February 24 and 25 at the Orpheum), who puts her own storytelling twist on standup and takes on thoughtprovoking ideas of gender and sexuality. The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng (February 22 at the Vogue) just gets better and better, Paper Tiger star Bill Burr is the hands-down big ticket (February 20 at the Orpheum and February 21 at the Queen E.), Magic for Humans star Justin Willman gets tricky (February 13 at the Vogue), and Middleditch & Schwartz (February 15 at the Orpheum) push improv into warped new terrain.
TALKING STICK FESTIVAL
(At the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre and various other venues from February 18 to 29) At this year’s multidisciplinary celebration of Indigenous culture, look for powwow action, an artisan fair, Virago Nation burlesque, and the 2-Spirit Ball, alongside family theatre, a film series, and slam poetry.
Highlights: Meegwun Fairbrother’s one-person play Isitwendam (An Understanding), about a half-Ojibway man hired to discredit a residentialschool survivor’s claim, has been called “chilling” and “heartbreaking”; catch it February 26 to 29 at the Roundhouse. And check out Tlakentli Dance-Theatre (February 21 to 23 at the same venue), in a show about two Indigenous artists from Mexico.
COASTAL DANCE FESTIVAL
(At the UBC Museum of Anthropology and New Westminster’s Anvil Centre from February 25 to March 1) The Dancers of Damelahamid present artists from B.C.—like the Rainbow Creek Dancers (featuring powerhouse Haida artists Robert Davidson and Terri-Lynn WilliamsDavidson)—and from as far away as New Zealand (the young Tuakana and Teina Leadership Academy Group) in their 13th annual fete for Indigenous dance. Highlights: Inuit artists Tooma Laisa and Leanna Wilson from Canada’s Arctic bring throat singing and drum dancing to the Anvil, joining the fest for the first time (March 1).
VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL DANCE FESTIVAL
(At the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre and various other venues from March 6 to 28) Kokoro Dance’s annual smorgasbord throws the spotlight on both rising Vancouver talents (like those from Modus Operandi) and international experimentalists (Hungary’s Ferenc Fehér). Highlights: Don’t miss powerhouse Vancouver dance innovator Shay Kuebler’s new Epilogos (March 6 and 7 at the Vancouver Playhouse), his Radical System Art troupe’s dizzying play on the theme of rhetoric, featuring the magnetic performer as a bowler-hatted “orator”. A galaxy of light projections generated by biomechanical sensors adds dazzle to Kuebler’s hyperenergized, martial-arts-and-street-danceinfluenced choreography.
FESTIVAL DU BOIS
(At Mackin Park in Maillardville from March 6 to 8) French-Canadian and francophoneinfluenced folk, roots, and world music hits the bandstands alongside poutine and maple-taffy stands, a jam tent, and other exhibits. Highlights: Hands down, the all-ages contra dance in the Grand Châpiteau, with live music from the Sybaritic String Band, and featuring caller Maureen Collier. Other musical draws include the soulful singing of Manitoba’s Beauséjour duo; Haitian-Canadian electro-poppers LeFLOFRANCO; the Acadian meeting the Celtic in the accordion, fiddle, and piano sounds of Tipsy 3; and the traditional Québécois renaissancers of the Yves Lambert Trio.