Your Best Bets at the Harmony Arts Festival

West Vancouver’s waterfront transforms into a vibrant art scene this weekend.

Lining West Vancouver’s Ambleside Beach, the Harmony Arts Festival has been a North Shore summertime staple for 28 years. Often described as a harmonious mix of visual, culinary, and performing arts, the festival returns this year from August 3-12 and includes a diverse lineup of artists from across the field, so expect classes, exhibitions, and the opportunity to shop from various vendors—including Western Living’s December 2017 One to Watch, Kathleen Tennock—at the Fresh St. Market along Argyle Avenue each weekend.Enjoy a variety of artisanal nibbles from the food trucks in John Lawson Park along the Centennial Seawalk, like ChouChou’s sweet and savoury gourmet French Crepes, Dunn’s Famous smoked meat, or Mr. Bannock’s namesake from Vancouver’s first Indigenous food truck (he’ll be serving the warm fry bread made with his own honey butter at the exhibition of Indigenous art and culture at Ambleside Landing, which is new to the festival this year). For an uptick in price, trade in the street food for vibrant summer cocktails with a view of downtown from Ambleside Pier at Night on the Pier—this third annual showdown between some of the Lower Mainland’s best bartenders includes Juniper’s Max Borrowman and Prohibition‘s returning competitor, Robyn Gray, as they compete to create daring new drinks (August 9, $75+).Don’t forget to try your luck in the Plein Air Challenge, which pushes festival-goers to test their own creative abilities on the canvas, armed with a paintbrush and a four-hour time limit (August 4, $20-35). Or, try a free (and less competitive) skill-tester and undertake wood carving with Squamish Nation master carver Xwalacktun on the weekends. There’s live music, too, from country to New Orleans-style jazz every night in Millenium Park against a beachside backdrop.

The Deets:

Harmony Arts FestivalFriday, August 3 to Sunday, August 121564 Argyle Avenue, West Vancouverharmonyarts.cahttps://www.instagram.com/p/BlT03DfBtj5/?hl=en&taken-by=harmonyarts