Vancouver Magazine
Best Thing I Ate This Week: Crispy Vietnamese Crepe Cake at Hai Chi Em
December’s Best Food Events in Vancouver—Where to Dine This Month
New Upscale Seafood Concept Osetra Is Now Open
5 Winemaker Holiday Hacks Direct from Nk’Mip Cellars
The Best (Actually Thoughtful) Bottles of Wine to Gift This Year
Breaking: Vancouver Cocktail Week Will Return for a Fifth Year in March
Vancouver International Black Film Festival Returns for a 5th Year
Your Guide to Vancouver’s 2025 Craft and Holiday Markets
You’re Invited to the 2026 Power 50 Awards!
Snowmobiles and Fondue Might Just Be the Perfect Whistler Night Out
I Tried It: Bioluminescent Kayaking on the Sunshine Coast
Why Osoyoos Is a Must-Visit in the Fall
Vancouver Designer Allison Dunne Weaves Art, Philosophy and Humour Into Dunne Cliff Knitwear
The Haul: Photographer Donnel Garcia Stocks Up on Oversized Sweaters and Tibetan Incense
The Vanmag Wish Book: What 14 Interesting Vancouverites Want for Christmas
Date: October 2 to 12Venue: The CultchPrice: From $26thecultch.com
A drag artist, burlesque performer and circus star walk into a theatre: the result might be funny, but it’s no joke. The Raven Transforming Cabaret Festival is Vancouver’s freshest multidisciplinary Indigenous performance festival, and it has a focus that stretches from stand-up to DJs to intimate club acts.
Festival curators Corey Payette (artistic director of Urban Ink) and Heather Redfern (executive director of the Cultch) are excited to spotlight a new form of performance in our cabaret-lacking city. “Having a large body of work showcased in a relatively compressed period of time creates synergies between artists who are often siloed into one aspect of cabaret,” say the festival organizers. Don’t skip leg day—you’ll need those edge-of-your-seat muscles.
Date: September 24 to 29Venue: The CultchPrice: From $18vancouverimprovfest.com
This fest features local comedians, out-of-town celebs (including Andrew Phung of CBC’s Kim’s Convenience) and open public workshops—so get ready to play yourself.
Date: October 7Venue: Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports CentrePrice: From $36rocktherink.com
Attention, triple axel admirers: iconic Canadian figure skaters Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir and Patrick Chan fuel this star-studded skating spectacular.
Date: September 12 to October 13Venue: Stanley Industrial Alliance StagePrice: From $29artsclub.com
This haunting but hopeful show is an adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling page-turner and tells the story of an unlikely bond between two women living in Kabul in the 1990s.
Date: Ongoing on MondaysVenue: Burdock and CoPrice: From $10burdockandco.com
Celebrate surviving the first day of the workweek by getting down with savoury dumplings, an all-natural wine list and a live DJ spinning vinyl.
Date: October 12Venue: Vogue TheatrePrice: From $32.50postmodernjukebox.com
If you like “Old Town Road” but think it could use more sousaphone, look no further than this giant vintage musical collective (also known by their acronym, PMJ)—their weekly YouTube covers have gained over four million subscribers.
Date: September 24 to October 5Venue: Firehall Arts CentrePrice: From $20firehallartscentre.ca
However woke you think you are, prepare to get woker: Young Jean Lee’s modern minstrel show about black identity confronts bias with a bite.
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.
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