Vancouver Writers Fest

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.

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

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

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

The largest Emily Carr survey in over twenty years fills the Vancouver Art Gallery with her swirling BC forests and coastlines.

Voted the city's best comedy venue, every show is audience-supplied and totally unrepeatable on Granville Island's waterfront.

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.

A 440-seat professional theatre on Granville Island where the recently redone lobby bar looks directly at False Creek.

A 1929 Granville Street ballroom with a dance floor literally built on tires, and Billboard's vote for one of North America's most influential clubs.

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

A former courthouse holding the world's largest Emily Carr collection, by-donation Tuesdays and free every first Friday of the month.

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

A warm 200-seat theatre in Port Moody's Newport Village, with dinner steps away and acoustics regulars actually brag about.

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