Vines Art Festival brings live music, storytelling, dance, fashion, and more to Vancouver parks, August 9 to 19
Called Feast Year, the event comes back with 100-plus performing and visual artists
Siobhan Barker will feature at the big celebration at Trout Lake Park on August 14. Photo by Luciana Freire D'Anunciação
VINES ART FESTIVAL has announced it will make a big return to live programming this summer, unveiling a free roster of 100 performing and visual artists.
Happening around Vancouver parks from August 9 to 19, with the main festival celebration August 14 at Trout Lake, the multidisciplinary event devoted to art, activism, and the environment will be called Feast Year. Many of the shows have ASL interpretation for this seventh-annual installment.
The celebration kicks off at 6 pm on August 9 at Second Beach with Terreane Derrick, Ta’Kaiya Blaney, Manuel Axel Strain, Kwiigay iiwaans, and more artists.
Elsewhere, the Vancouver Prison Justice Day Memorial takes place on August 10 by the Claire Culhane Memorial Bench in Trout Lake Park, while the next evening sees Our Stories Embodied unfurl at New Brighton Park with an array of storytellers and artists, including erica hiroko isomura, Corrina Keeling, and Shion Sky Carter.
Mx Buruku. Photo by Luciana Freire D'Anunciação
Fashion is also on the roster, as Project Vines riffs on Project Runway, in partnership with Mx Bukuru, August 12 at David Lam Park. There, contestants will reinvent recycled materials and repurposed materials.
In partnership with the Downtown Eastside Small Grants, Vines will also present Our Homes Our Stories on August 13 at CRAB Park, featuring the art of Dallanah Bowen, Makeda Martin, Gunargie O’Sullivan, the DTES Arts Collective, and many more.
It all builds up to Vines’ biggest event in more than two years, Stl'a7shn-chet, August 14 at Trout Lake. Starting at 1:30 pm, Stl'a7shn-chet fills the park with intergenerational artists including Siobhan Barker, Karanjit Shoker, Anjalica Soloman, and Katie Cassidy, complete with ASL Interpretation with blind- and low-vision-friendly performances.
On August 17, We Will Move brings dance back to Hadden Park, with performances by the likes of Caroline Hébert, Hila Graf, Iven Simonetti, and more.
The next night sees the return of Vines mainstay Resilient Roots, highlighting multiple Indigenous artists and pairing them with a mentor, with names including Terreane, Madelaine McCallum, Zofia Rose, and others on this year’s roster.
Feast Year comes to a close with The Return of the Thunderbeings on August 19 at Creekside Park. Presented in partnership with AfroVan Connect, the event celebrates Black life and its fragility, following the experience of four youth of African descent as they confront loss, grief, and change as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement. It features artists including Jacky Essombe, Yoro Noukoussi, and AfroVan Connect.
And spanning August 1 to 20, Earth Witnessing will offer an array of audio and visual works designed for visitors to engage with their senses in local parks. Presented in partnership with Alex Mah, Adriana Contreras, and Senaqwila Wyss, the experiences will highlight Indigenous language, and encourage you to learn the original name for the land, flora, and fauna you walk on. Earth Witnessing is being offered at X̱áywá7esks/Creekside Park, X̱epx̱páy̓ em/Hadden Park, Lek’lekí/CRAB Park, Smem̓ chús/Smamḵw’ch /David Lam Park, X̱í7nam̓ ut/New Brighton Park, and Trout Lake Park.
You can find the full schedule here.
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