April is a beautiful month as we transition from cherry blossoms on the streets to tulip festivals in valley. Spring is in full swing and there’s no shortage of events in Vancouver this month. Browse and bookmark this page and check back often as the list if updated daily with even more fun things to do around Vancouver this April:
Gateway Theatre presents Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery from April 11 to 20, 2024. This production is a fresh and lively comedic take on the legendary tale of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Genevieve Fleming and Gerry Mackay. Photo by David Cooper.
Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery at Gateway Theatre
From award-winning “master of mayhem” Ken Ludwig (Lend Me a Tenor, Moon Over Buffalo) presents a fast-paced comedy like no other. Directed by Gateway Theatre’s Artistic Director Barabara Tomasic, this production promises laughter, suspense, and wit.
In this retelling of the Victorian whodunit, Sherlock Holmes (Genevieve Fleming) and Dr. Watson (Gerry Mackay) embark on a riveting adventure to solve the baffling mystery surrounding Sir Charles Baskerville’s death. The audience will find themselves eagerly guessing at every twist and turn. Joining Fleming and Mackay, Andrew Cownden, Mack Gordon, and Melissa Oei take on nearly 40 different characters, darting on and off the stage in this complex plot. Watch the intrepid investigators try to decipher a dizzying web of clues, silly accents, disguises, and deceit, all while giving the audience a performance filled with laughs as they follow along this murderously funny adventure.
The creative team includes Lighting Designer Kevin Tanner and Sound Designer Steve Marsh. Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery is stage managed by Philomena Sondergaard with Assistant Stage Manager Scarlett Larry.
Discover Vancouver’s music scene in any of these diverse, local entertainment venues across the city. From intimate lounges to dance clubs, the Vancouver Concert Calendar (for April 2024) is full of great shows!
Vancouver Concert Calendar for April 2024
Find your favourite musical performers or discover a new love on the April 2024 Vancouver Concert Calendar:
Orpheum
Orpheum 601 Smithe St, Vancouver The Orpheum has hosted millions of people in it’s over 90 years since opening in 1927. This venue is the perfect place to experience your favourite artist or symphony from all over the world. Instagram | Facebook | Website
The Commodore Ballroom 868 Granville St, Vancouver For more than 90 years, The Commodore Ballroom has provided a location for Vancouver’s entertainment and nightlife. Since 1930, the award-winning ballroom has hosted more than 150 events each year, gathering over 120,000 local and travelling guests annually. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Queen Elizabeth Theatre 630 Hamilton St, Vancouver Regularly hosting opera and musical performances including Broadway shows, the Queen Elizabeth Theatre holds the shows of legendary artists and emerging performers. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Vogue Theatre 918 Granville St, Vancouver Locally owned Vogue Theatre is one of the last remaining theatres from Vancouver’s Theatre Row. For more than 70 years, the theatre has hosted up to 200 events each year. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Biltmore Cabaret 2755 Prince Edward St, Vancouver For more than 50 years, the Biltmore Cabaret has served as a platform location for Vancouver’s musical performances from local and touring performers across a wide spectrum of music and arts genres. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Fox Cabaret 2321 Main St, Vancouver Fox Cabaret is a 2 floor venue and nightclub hosting nightlife since it’s renovation in 2013. It’s the perfect location for independent culture, live music, DJs, dance parties, comedy shows and more. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Rickshaw Theatre 254 E Hastings St, Vancouver Since 2009, the Rickshaw Theatre has been a Vancouver favourite venue for both performers and audiences. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Vancouver Playhouse 600 Hamilton St, Vancouver The Vancouver Playhouse is a local favourite among performance groups looking to connect with audiences. From film, dance, music, and theatre, the playhouse hosts events for all. Instagram | Facebook | Website
The Wise 1882 Adanac St, Vancouver The Wise Hall & Lounge is a comfy basement lounge and a great venue for catching live musical performances. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Guilt & Co 1 Alexander St, Underground, Vancouver No tickets required for most of Guilt & Co‘s shows. The venue hosts two shows a day, seven days a week averaging over 700 non-ticketed shows a year. Catch GroundUp shows every Thursday night. Net revenue for each GroundUp show is donated to a Downtown Eastside organization (including DTES Women’s Centre, A Loving Spoonful, and more). Instagram | Facebook | Website
Fortune Sound Club 147 E Pender St, Vancouver Upstairs in Vancouver’s Chinatown, Fortune Sound Club is a nightclub that hosts live music, special events, and arts. Catch live DJ sets every Friday, Saturday, and Monday night. Instagram | Facebook | Website
Hollywood Theatre 3123 W Broadway, Vancouver A classic movie theatre reimagined as an arts and entertainment space, the Hollywood Theatre is a landmark of arts, theatre, and music in Vancouver. The venue hosts events of all kinds from movies and concerts to comedy and dancing with much more in between. Instagram | Facebook | Website
The Vancouver Art Gallery announces the appointment of three Vancouver-based curators in Residence; Pantea Haghighi, Makiko Hara, and Nya Lewis.
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Curatorial Residencies at The Vancouver Art Gallery
Through wide-ranging projects spanning exhibitions, performances, research and publications, Pantea Haghighi, Makiko Hara, and Nya Lewis will bring an exciting breadth of experience and expertise while offering new voices and perspectives to the Gallery’s Curatorial Department. Their curatorial residencies at the Vancouver Art Gallery will commence immediately and run through 2025.
About the Artists
Pantea Haghighi
As an independent curator and doctoral student at Simon Fraser University, Pantea Haghighi focuses her research on modernism in architecture and the visual arts in relation to the politics of language. Haghighi utilizes her experience collaborating with individuals from various cultural backgrounds to strengthen the Gallery’s mission to connect people, bring communities together and create spaces that invite discussion and the exchange of ideas. Haghighi recently guest curated Parviz Tanavoli: Poets, Locks, Cages, a groundbreaking exhibition of works by the Iranian–born, Vancouver–based artist, presented in 2023. During her residency, Haghighi will continue her research on the emergence and development of modernism in Iran in the period between 1948 and 1978, while deepening the Gallery’s knowledge of artists from this region.
Makiko Hara
Makiko Hara has over three decades of experience in international contemporary art as an independent curator, producer, lecturer, performance artist and writer. Since relocating from Tokyo to Vancouver in 2007, she has continually challenged notions of cross-Pacific identity through an array of experimental curatorial practices. From 2007 to 2013, Hara was the Chief Curator of Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. In 2021, Hara received the Alvin Balkind Curator’s Prize from the Shadbolt Foundation. Hara recently guest curated Offsite: Pedro Reyes and Lani Maestro at the Gallery’s public outdoor art space, Offsite, and has worked on numerous art projects around the city. Hara’s focus at the Gallery will be curating performance events and public art projects that bring a new layer of depth and understanding to the Gallery’s exhibitions and programs.
Nya Lewis
Nya Lewis currently serves as the Director of Artspeak gallery, Interim Artistic Director of the Vancouver Queer Film festival, and a Research Assistant at the Center for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora. In 2020, Lewis guest curated Where do we go from here?, an exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery that developed as an opportunity to consider the Gallery’s own collecting and exhibition history. Lewis’ hybrid practice is rooted in the culmination of centuries of resistance, love, questions, actions and study concerning Black Atlantic/Pacific cultural production. Throughout the residency, the Gallery will support Lewis’ research towards a major publication dedicated to Black cultural production in British Columbia. Working across the disciplines of artmaking, programming, research, curating and writing, Lewis’ work is multivalent in form and expression but is always driven by the reimagining and reclaiming of community.
The knowledge and expertise created throughout the residencies are a critical element that contributes to the Gallery’s growth and reimagining of what an art museum in the 21st century can be. The Gallery recently started construction on a new purpose-built art facility to open in 2028. The new building is anticipated to greatly expand and diversify the programs and exhibitions that the Gallery is able to present.
Cherry blossoms and spring festivals abound this long weekend around Metro Vancouver. Check out the big list of things to do, from Spring Break activities to egg hunts and fun on the farm:
