Thursday, Aug 15

The 31st Annual Vancouver Queer Film Festival 

The Vancouver Queer Film Festival (VQFF) is a vibrant space for queer arts, culture, and community. It showcases dynamic and thought-provoking films from British Columbian filmmakers as well as other Canadian and international directors and storytellers. From our Opening Gala showing of Song Lang, to our projecting brilliance: two spirit showcase, this year’s VQFF is more enthralling and entertaining than ever. Old favourites include Troublemakers, now in its fourth year, and The Coast is Queer, a local shorts program that highlights the work of homegrown queer filmmakers.  To check out the films, times, venues and tickets please check online at Queer Film Festival

Opening Gala Party: A Night at the Opera

Come party dressed ready for a night at the opera! Join us after our Opening Gala screening of Song Lang at the šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn Plaza just steps away from The Vancouver Playhouse. In theme with the operatic aesthetics of the film, it will be a night of high drama hosted by Virago Nation’s spectacular glamedian Sparkle Plenty and featuring performances from Maiden China and Coven. Dance the night away with us to vibes curated by DJ Denise & Denzin 8 Productions and celebrate our 31st year.

9:30pm—12am. šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn Plaza, 757 Robson St. Entry is free with membership, which will also be sold at the door. You only need to buy membership once to access any event during the Festival. Adult Membership costs $5. A Night At the Opera

Friday, Aug 16

New Westminster Pride Cruise

Celebrate New Westminster Pride on board an official old time Paddlewheeler! Join for dancing, food & drink specials and a 3 hour sunset cruise on the Fraser River and feel like you are on a 19th century old Paddlewheeler cruising up the river to the envy of everyone on shore.

6:30—10pm. Paddlewheeler Tours, 150-810 Quayside Dr, New Westminster. Tickets $40 and info at Pride Cruise

BOSSY: Femme Powered Hip Hop + R&B

BOSSY is an inclusive dance party celebrating the talent of women/femme identified and non-binary people in hip hop/r&b/grime. Expect to hear artists like: Missy Elliot, Beyonce, Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Trina, Cardi B, TLC, Tinashe, MIA, Eve, Nicki Minaj, Lady, Shawnna, Ciara, Dej Loaf, Lady Leshurr, Princess Nokia, Young M.A, Kodie Shane, Dreezy, and more. Come get sweaty on the dancefloor with DJ's Softieshan, Sugarbrowne, and MÖM!

10:30pm—2am. Fox Cabaret, 2321 Main St. Tickets $9 and info at BOSSY

Saturday, Aug 17

New West Pride Street Festival

It’s their anniversary and they cannot be more excited to celebrate with you. Join the New West LGBTQ+ community for the 10th annual New West Pride and help celebrate Pride. An entire week of community events culminates with the street festival our community has come to love. Come check out the free fun and festivities, it's always the party of the year! New West Pride is just steps from New Westminster and Columbia Skytrain Stations.

3 pm - 8 pm. Along historic Columbia Street in New Westminster, BC. www.newwestpride.ca

PNE Opens and adds For The Love of Drag

The PNE is back from today until Monday, Sept 2 for all the fun you remember as a child and so much more. This year Tuck Entertainment will be bringing you a Drag Show called “For the Love of Drag” every night of the fair featuring Sienna Blaze, Raye Sunshine, Kendall Gender, Mina Mercury, Jaylene Tyme and Carrie Dawn. They will be in the Revel District of the fair at 7:30pm each night. For a full list of events, shows, bands and fun check out PNE

Men's Wellness Fair

Mt. Pleasant, Kiwassa and Little Mountain Neighbourhood Houses invite you to the 2nd rendition of our “Men’s Wellness Fair”. Please join for an afternoon of learning about programs and services that are catered towards the health needs of men in our communities. Come learn about a diverse range of programs that support mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health. We acknowledge the vast array of ways that humans can identify as men and intend to create a space that is inclusive and safe for trans, non-binary and queer identities. This project is meant to connect people that identify as men to support services that benefit them.

11am—2pm. Mount Pleasant Neighborhood House, 800 East Broadway St. For registration please sign up at Men's Wellness Fair

Queer the CBC Workshop

VQFF and the CBC will host a discussion panel on the role of a national broadcaster in the creation and dissemination of LGBT2Q+ content. Participants will get a chance to learn about what the national broadcaster looks for in LGBT2Q+ content and how to get your content noticed by a major television network.

11am—12:30pm. Goldcorp Centre For The Arts, 149 West Hastings St. Free event. Queer the CBC Workshop

New West Pride Day: After Party

Celebrity Drag Queens will continue the celebration of the 10th anniversary of New West Pride Day in the timeless classic theatre that just happens to be on the street you are already on after going to the street party.

7—11:30pm. Columbia Theatre, 530 Columbia St. Tickets $25--$35 and info at Pride Day After Party

Sunday, Aug 18

Qtbipoc Futures with Kalik

Kalik is an interdisciplinary film and media collective that works specifically with queer and trans people of colour and the science fiction genre. Queer and trans people and people of colour are often excluded from or marginalized within science fiction films. This workshop will ask the questions: what does the future look like for queer and trans people of colour? How do we imagine creatively surviving and thriving in worlds and times to come? And how do we dream up alternative realities that explore and expand our realities and histories? Filmmakers, performers and writers lee williams boudakian and Kamee Abrahamian will engage participants by sharing their own stories and leading collaborative screenwriting exercises.

11am—12:30pm. Goldcorp Centre For The Arts, 149 West Hastings St. Free event. Qtbipoc Futures

Queer Film Curation Workshop

Want to know what goes into programming a Queer Film Festival? Go behind the scenes of VQFF with Artistic Director Anoushka Ratnarajah, Festival Programmer Justin Ducharme, and members of VQFF’s Programming Committee. Participants will get a chance to learn about all the moving pieces behind curating a film festival, from research to film selection to working with distributors to collaboration with multidisciplinary artists. Participants will get a look into what the climate and ecology of the international and national film festival circuit including current trends and challenges.

1—2:30pm. Goldcorp Centre For The Arts, 149 West Hastings St. Free event. Queer Film Workshop

Drag Queen Karaoke

What can be more fun than singing your favourite songs with local drag queens: which group do you think will sound better? Just try to get the mic away from some of the Queens lol.  Grab your friends (or the drag queens will), pick your songs and have a great night.

8:30pm. Chicha Restaurant, 136 East Broadway. Drag Queen Karaoke

Monday, Aug 19

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Strings Attached Tour

Ready for a night that is Rock and Comedy with a Symphonic experience? With over three decades of tunes to choose from there will be something for everyone.

8pm. Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 600 Block Hamilton St. Tickets $77--$416 and info at Weird Al Yankovic

Tuesday, Aug 20

Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny Screening 

Watch the official premiere of Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny at the 2019 Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny is a new short documentary from local filmmakers Love Intersections that probes the nuances of Queer Chinese Canadian identity. The film investigates how being part of a distant diaspora, as well as being othered as outsiders in Canada, informs the racial and queer identities of the subjects. They follow local drag artist Kendell Yan, otherwise known as Maiden China, along with other local queer Chinese performers and activists as their intimate interviews reveal the ways in which being “marked” as the embodiment of femininity, to the lack of representation, to sexual racism, informs the forging of identities by queer Chinese Canadians.

7—9pm. Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour St. Tickets $14 and info at Yellow Peril

Pleasuring Prostates: Live Demo

In this live demo based workshop by Redrobin, they will be exploring anal and prostate play on men. You can expect to hear about safety, toys & tools, getting over fears and shame, methods, tips and tricks for solo play and partnered play! Due to the intimate nature of this seminar they ask that you please arrive on time (prior to 7:30pm) as they will lock the doors and late arrivals will not be admitted or refunded.

7—9:30pm. The Art Of Loving, 369 West Broadway St. Registration $50 and info at Pleasuring Prostates

Wednesday, Aug 21

New West Life in Colour

Life In Colour is a space for men-of-colour to come together in a respectful, safer, private and non-judgmental environment. This space is created by men-of-colour for men-of-colour to come together and share common struggles, interests, desires and to support each other and grow together. This exclusive (POC only), confidential space will be a mix of fun social activities, snacks, sharing past experiences as well as exploring and expanding on how our identities relate to “gay men’s health.” This group is open black, indigenous, Asian, mixed-race, and people of colour who identify as men (trans, cis, and other men, and inclusive of two-spirit and non-binary folks) who also identify as gay, bi, queer, asexual, curious, and/or as guys who are into/or having sex with guys (for any reason – including for work). You are welcome whether or not you are “out.”

7—8:30pm. HIM, 218-610 6th St, New Westminster. For more information or to register, please email qlic@checkhimout.ca Info at Life In Colour

A Moms Over Miami Summer

Ryan Steele and Amy Goodmurphy are at it again. It's summertime and Moms Over Miami are cooking up a full live show just for you! Join Judy and Susan and as they host some amazing guests, gossip about their relatives and neighbours, and probably get in a fight or three. LOL. And of course a brand new concert with all new songs.

8—9:30pm. Fox Cabaret, 2321 Main St. Tickets $15 and info at Moms Over Miami Summer

Encore Musical Theatre Sing-Along

Join Kerry O'Donovan and Sean Allen for live piano and sing-alongs of musical theatre and popular hits! Every week is packed and a lot of fun.

9pm. Pumpjack Pub, 1167 Davie St. No cover. Encore

Friday, Aug 23

Welcome to Clown Town: A Drag Workshop

Portland’s premier drag clown Carla Rossi (with intellectual support from her human avatar Anthony Hudson) attempts to chart the vast abyss of drag and its potential, addressing how drag’s many varieties, flavors, and houses correspond to the uncharitable spectrum of genders and sexuality – with supporting looks at its legendary elders, artists, and ancestors, from Two-Spirits (and other-gender shamans of the pre-settler North American continent) and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to Marsha P. Johnson, Leigh Bowery, Elvira, RuPaul, and Christeene.

4—5:30pm. Goldcorp Centre For The Arts, 149 West Hastings St. Free event. Clown Town

Kelowna Pride Presents Super Gay Comedy Night

Kelowna Pride has partnered with Kelowna Comedy to presents Super Gay Comedy Night at Dakoda's Comedy Lounge featuring two of Vancouver's finest. You don't want to miss this hilarious night of comedy. Kelby Delaet prairie girl based out of Vancouver who started doing stand up right in Kelowna. Steev Letts is the big sweaty gay bastard who won the 2018 Vancouver Yuk Off and the 2019 Vancouver Comedy Award for breakout artist of the year. He aims to make you laugh at that which makes you cringe. Steev recently recorded his debut album for 604 Records, available soon on all major platforms.

9—10:30pm. Dakodas Sports Bar & Grill, 1574 Harvey Ave, Kelowna. Tickets $15 at door. Super Gay Comedy Night

All Our Relations: Explorations Of Indigiqueer Kinship

Chosen family kinship holds a place of reverence to two spirit and indigiqueer survival. This program interrogates the ways in which we as queer indigenous bodies carve out space for these human and non-human relationships as well as the impact, they have on our ability to exist in a world that doesn’t always care for us. Join for a mix of narrative and documentary film in partnership with the launch of Projections, the newest issue of the Together Apart zine.

7—8:40pm. York Theatre, 693 commercial Dr. Tickets $14 and info at Explorations Of Indigiqueer Kinship

Saturday, Aug 24

Fraser Valley Pride Celebration

Just when you thought the pride celebrations were over, join in the Chilliwack’s first Annual Pride BBQ, which is brought to you by the Chilliwack Gender Care Committee. Food, games and prizes for everyone.

12—3pm. Neighborhood Learning Centre, 46363 Yale Rd, Chilliwack. Free event. Fraser Valley Pride

Woahman Comics Presents: A-Gay-Zine Tales Book Release 

Woahman Comics Presents: A-Gay-Zine Tales Book Release Hosted By Unibrow Arts Festival. Woahman Comics creator Tim Bauer draws Queer comics inspired by 80's comics/toys/cartoons/horror and sci fi movies combined with a “Tom of Finland” flair. His interest is creating a satire on how we are gendered by the toys, cartoons, and comics that we (those who have grown up during the 80’s) might have owned and interacted with. He's also a fan of drag queens and people that have the courage to blur gender in their fashion and artwork, which has inspired him to create “campy” Sci-Fi, and Horror comics highlighting drag queens as the main characters.

2—4pm. The 8th Dimension Comic Store, 2418 Main St. Woahman Comics

Hustla: Homo Hip Hop

One of Vancouver's favourite sweaty nights out is finally hopping across the pond and touching down at Paparazzi! You know her, you love her, the Sweatiest Mess around Peach Cobblah returns to burn it up on the dance floor with you in an all hip hop and r&b night that will give you feels in places you didn't know you had… But she's not alone... Seriously though, don't miss this, or Peach will have to mail you a jar of her sweat. Unless you're into that kind of thing in which case she'll just send you a photo of it to taunt you.

9pm—2am. Paparazzi Nightclub, 642 Johnson St. $12 cover. Hustla: Homo Hip Hop

In Advance

Sometimes there are gay events that are so popular they sell out weeks before you may even hear about them. So, you have a chance to get your tickets before they are gone.

Sept 17

Rent - 20th Anniversary Tour

In 1996, an original rock musical by a little-known composer opened on Broadway… and forever changed the landscape of American theatre. A re-imagining of Puccini's La Bohème, RENT follows an unforgettable year in the lives of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams without selling out. With its inspiring message of joy and hope in the face of fear, this timeless celebration of friendship and creativity reminds us to measure our lives with the only thing that truly matters—love. Two decades later, Jonathan Larson’s RENT continues to speak loudly and defiantly to audiences across generations and all over the world. And now, this Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award®-winning masterpiece returns to the stage in a vibrant 20th anniversary touring production.

7:30—10:30pm. Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 600 Hamilton St. Tickets $47--$189 and info at Rent 20th Anniversary Tour

Where’s the Pride?

What’s On Queer has a great listing of 2019 BC Pride Celebrations, on their Resources page. As well, we’ve gathered all the events on our calendar click here —>

Written by
Tom Coleman

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Thumbnail photo: New West Record