Richmond Maritime Festival

Shakespeare in a tent by the water at Vanier Park, running all summer.

Broadway musicals under the open sky at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park.

Port Moody's only free public gallery, housed in two heritage buildings that make the romance look effortless.

Suzhou artisans, no nails, Ming Dynasty methods, and National Geographic's vote for the world's top city garden, in Chinatown.

A cavernous 1894 salmon cannery on the Steveston waterfront, with modest admission, clattering machinery, and fish and chips on the dock after.

Spread a blanket on the Deer Lake festival lawn, share a beer-garden pint, and let live blues drift over the water as the sun drops.

Hop a SeaBus, land at a sawtooth-roofed gallery by the Shipyards, and redirect your donation budget straight to the patio beer next door.

Thirty-one reconstructed 1920s buildings, a 1912 carousel, and the quiet suspicion you'd actually thrive back then.

Vancouver's answer to the Vegas Sphere: a 360 dome at the Space Centre where Pink Floyd, blue whales and the cosmos wrap the entire ceiling in 10K and Dolby Atmos, watched flat on your back from a reclining seat.

A 1927 gilded dome in Vancouver, home of the Vancouver Symphony, and the most beautiful room you'll be seen in all year.

A full Broadway musical outdoors in Stanley Park: Sister Act and The Little Mermaid alternate nightly at Malkin Bowl through August 22.

Vancouver's 1981 indie record shop, where the bins reveal more about a person than any dating app ever will.

Towering totem poles against sea and forest, a half-price Thursday, and the trip to UBC that's actually worth it.

Eighty-plus unfiltered indie shows across Granville Island, most of them an hour or less, so you can see two in a night and argue about them over a waterfront drink.