www.vancouver21.com

This video is inspired by the lighted fountain at the Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver and shot on March 26, 2011 from 8:30PM to 9:30PM (Earth Hour 2011). During that time, the Bloedel Conservatory lights inside the dome where tropical plants resided in a greenhouse were turned off as scheduled but the outdoor fountain lights and jet-streams remained on.

Starting in 1989, the City of Vancouver has partnered with BC Hydro as a Power Smart Partner to reduce electrical energy use. Since then, many of buildings have undergone renovations including Vandeusen Gardens, Bloedel Conservatory, City Hall Campus and many other community centers within the city. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emission, saving costs in electricity, natural gas, water use etc.

It was projected that GHG reduction is to be more than 20% in 2010 compared to 1990s level. Vancouver aims to be The World’s Greenest City by 2020.
VIDEO – Hydro Electric Powered Fountain Lights at Q.E. Park

Bloedel Conservatory, Vancouver BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

Irish musical quartet Leum plays traditional Celtic dance tunes and songs with a New World energy and a laid-back westcoast style. Annie Brown on fiddle, Keona Hammond on flute, Alys Howe on harp and Neil Hammond on guitar and bodhran. Leum performed in downtown CelticFest 2011 (Georgia and Granville streets in downtown Vancouver) as part of the St. Patrick’s Day’s celebration week in March 2011. The audience was more than ready for some heel-clicking fun and Gaelic jump.
VIDEO – Leum at CelticFest 2011, a St. Patrick’s Day event

Celtic Village, Georgia and Granville streets, Vancouver BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

VIDEOS –
St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2011 Spectacular!
St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2011 (Part 1)
Colin Grant @ CelticFest 2011
Stephanie Cadman @ CelticFest 2011

© Copyright 2011 Ray Van Eng/Getty Images.




































Celtic Village, Georgia & Granville streets

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

All the bells and whistles of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2011 in Vancouver. The most spectacular Irish celebration in western Canada. Irish dancers, clowns, fire engines, police, antique cars, floats, trucks, bagpipe bands, legend marching bands, horse-mounted drill teams, Chinese lion dancers, Celtic warriors etc. in a spectacular display of Irish pride and celebration. The parade was held on March 20, 2011 between Drake and Georgia Street on Howe in downtown Vancouver.

The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is just one of the highlights of the almost week-long Celtic Fest in the city with plenty of Canadian musical bands from across the country providing entertainment – Colin Grant Band, Stephanie Cadman, Leum, Spirit of The West, The Wheat in The Barley, Sionnaine Irish Dancers etc. Star of The County Down, a famous Irish tune can be heard playing on bagpipes in marching bands and on stage performances with electric guitars and fiddles.
VIDEO – St. Patrick’s Day 2011 Spectacular!

VIDEO – St. Patrick’s Day Parade Police Bands and Lion Dancers


Because of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games last year, the St. parade was cancelled. This year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2011 was greeted with excellent weather and had a very large turn-out, some estimated to be about 200,000.

Georgia, Granville & Howe streets, Vancouver BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

Stephanie Cadman and Jake Charron performed at the Celtic Village (Georgia & Grnaville street in Vancouver) in Mach of 2011 at the Celtic Fest 2011. Stephanie Cadman is not only a virtuoso fiddler, at 16, she was already the top female at the World Tap Dance Championships, and held three step-dancing titles at the Pembroke Championships. Cadman co-founded a dance show The StepCrew and toured on her own production, Celtic Blaze and as a main violinist in BowFire. Jake Charron plays the piano and guitar and is one of Canada’s most highly-regarded accompanists for fiddle music.
VIDEO – Stephanie Cadman Irish Fiddle and Dance at Celtic Fest 2011

Celtic Village – Georgia & Granville Street, Vancouver BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

VIDEO – Colin Grant Band @ Celtic Fest 2011

Georgia & Granville, Vancouver

From the east to the west, Cape Breton’s Colin Grant Band came to Vancouver to perform at the Pacific Centre Plaza on March 15, 2011 to help kick off the Celtic Fest 2011. But as Grant himself indicated, they were a year too late for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. The free noon-time concert was staged right off the entrance to Vancouver City Centre Skytrain station on Georgia and Granville street and will continue on from 15-19, March, 2011. Meanwhile, the Colin Grant Band will stay on to perform at ticketed venues such as the Doolin’s Irish Pub and other locations. Details at http://www.celticfestvancouver.com/

The instrumental sound of Irish rhythm and tunes were provided by Colin Grant (fiddle), Jason Roach (piano), Darren McMullen (guitar, mandolin, banjo) Donnie Calabrese (bass) and Colin Clarke (Drums).

There will be a St. Patrick Day Parade on Sunday (Mar 20) to cap off the almost weeklong series of musical performances. On Mar 19-20 at the Celtic Village or the section of Granville Street between Georgia and Smithe street, the Celtic Fest 2011 will be filled with Irish dance, songs, swordplay, workshops, storytelling, Gaelic Football and other family fun activities.


View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

The Shakti Awards 2011 celebrated South Asian women’s achievements on March 12, 2011 at the Bollywood Banquet Hall in Surrey, BC. In India, Shakti means power and it has come to personify the idealism of the female sex that takes on life’s responsibility assigned to them with grace, courage and enduring strength. To coincide with events that were held around International Women’s Day (March 08), the Shakti Awards were presented to women in the South Asian community that exemplified those qualities in five different categories: Academic, Public Service, Business Entrepreneur, Artistic Achievement and Sports/Recreational.

The night’s events are organized by Sonia Andhi and emceed by CBC’s Meera Bains and Shaw Multicultural’s Mana Mansour. Keynote Speaker Nasima Nastoh gave a moving speech on anti-bullying. A South Asian night is not complete without some Indian dancing and Bollywood songs. That is aptly provided by Zahra Habib. An Eco Fashion Show by Kaia Andme rounded out the evening.

VIDEO – Zahra Habib Bollywood moves at Shakti Awards

[Photos and video by Ray Van Eng/Getty Images]











































8166 128 St. Surrey BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

As part of the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the International Women’s Day in 2011, the Utopia Festival at Storyeum in Vancouver’s Gastown featured an evening program of female media artists on March 05, 2011.

The evening started with a First Nations dedication, then it’s onto the main show which featured performers such as DJs, media artists and author/orators: Peaches, Isis Salam, B-Traits, Betti Forde, Librarian, Lynx, Zenobia, She, Blondtron, DJ Veronica, Lady Lane etc.

There are aboriginal artists as well like Nunavut throat-singer Tanya Tagaq, cellist Cris Derksen and Musqueam MC Christie Lee Charles who raps in English and also her native Halkomelem language. After consulting with her elders, Christie Lee Charles was permitted to use the ancient dialect in her rap performance ’in this modern way and follow the protocol.’

Cris Derksen on the other hand is a half-Cree classically trained cellist who often uses loop station and effects pedals to create a new form of musical expression that blends hip hop, folk, rock and aboriginal rhythms.

VIDEO – Cris Derksen and Christie Lee Charles in Vancouver

142 Water Street, Vancouver BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

Utopia Festival 2011: the 100th Anniversary International Women’s Day Event at The Storyeum in Vancouver’s Gastown district on March 5, 2011. The festival celebrates and empowers women in digital culture and features the largest line-up of female electronic music creators. Workshops, Mobile Dance Party and evening programs that highlight rhythm with musical performances by Canadian and international artists such as Peaches, Tanya Tagaq, Isis Salam etc.

One of the highlights of the evening at W2 Storyeum in the newly-renovated downtown Woodwards building complex was Tanya Tagaq, a throat singer from Nunavut, NWT, Canada. It would be appropriate to describe that Tanya Tagaq sings from her guts and innards. Raw, primal and hysterical, Tagaq’s musical act combines traditional aboriginal First Nations throat-singing techniques and contemporary hip hop DJ beats and rhythm to express the angst and the occasional heightened sense of elastic joy of a liberated modern female psyche.

The electronic music and vocal performance reverberated the room with such supercharged sexual energy that the appreciative screams from the audience was as loud as the animalistic howling from the artist herself.

VIDEO – Tanya Tagaq LIBERATED! International Women’s Day 2011 in Vancouver

Storyeum, 142 Water Street, Vancouver BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery

The International Women’s Day is on March 08, 2011 but Vancouver celebrated early and in style during the weekend on March 05, 2011 with a festival dubbed Utopia and a parade named mobile dance. Much of the day’s events happened at W2 Storyeum in Vancouver’s Gastown district.

The Utopia Festival 2011 was designed to celebrate and empower women in digital culture and featured the largest line-up of female electronic music creators in Canada. Workshops, Mobile Dance Party and an evening program that highlighted rhythm with musical performances by Canadian and international artists such as Peaches, Tanya Tagaq, Isis Salam, B-Traits, Betti Forde, Librarian, Lynx, Zenobia, She, Blondtron, DJ Veronica, Lady Lane etc.

The Mobile Dance Party took place earlier in the day starting at the Broadway-Commercial Skytrain station. A large procession of hundreds of participants then travelled along Commercial Drive complete with an ensemble cast of drummers, sax-players and trumpeters, stilt-walkers and clowns etc. Plenty of political flag-waving for peace and justice in Iran, Amnesty International, freedom from sexism etc.
VIDEO – International Women’s Day Parade along Commercial Drive in Vancouver

2500 Commercial Drive, Vancouver BC

View Larger Map

• Photostream

Next Page ›

‹ Previous Page

Powered by Flickr Gallery