Vancouver’s newest (and possibly coolest) wine event goes down next week. Top Drop “looks to shine a brighter light on wineries who focus on producing wines with minimal intervention.”Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail
Top drop: Vancouver's newest (and possibly coolest) wine event goes down next week. Co-founded by wine consultant Kurtis Kolt and Jeff Curry of The Wine Syndicate, Top Drop "looks to shine a brighter light on wineries who focus on producing wines with minimal intervention, paying particular attention to expressing an honest sense of time and place in the glass, the epitome of the term terroir." The Main Event ($59) is a walk-around, grazing-style tasting of wines from 33 wineries as well as pours from like-minded craft breweries and perfectly paired bites from food purveyors such as Nelson The Seagull, Benton Brothers Fine Cheese and Two Rivers Specialty Meats. The Main Event goes down on Friday, Sept. 11 and tickets are going fast. Bonus: there are a series of sit-down winemaker dinners happening Thursday night (Sept. 10).
Sept. 10 & 11, various locations, times and prices, www.topdropvancouver.com
Opening: Hot Art Wet City Gallery and Catalog Creative present Receipt, an art exhibition that aims to examine the relationship between art, value and cost by juxtaposing it with money spent on consumables such as dining and drinking. From show organizers: "We're fascinated by the disconnect between things we value and what we readily spend on a weekend. Every show we have is met with a price-barrier conversation but our consumption of food, drugs and alcohol has never been higher. We want to draw that direct line and have people support the incredible artists in our city before they move away to more embracing cities." To that end, price tags on works in this show are paired with actual receipts from dinners and weekend benders. Expect art by local talents such as Ali Bruce, Jeff Wilson, Jay Senetchko, Arleigh Wood, Jeremiah Birnbaum, Sean Karemaker, Andrea Hooge, Ilya Viryachev, James Knight, Colin Moore, Drew Young and Caroline Weaver. Opening night (Friday) will be a party.
Sept. 11, 7 to 11 p.m., Hot Art Wet City Gallery (2206 Main St.), free, hotartwetcity.com
Party: This is it, folks. We're headed in to the last days of summer, so go big with a secret summer send-off party! Brought to you by Here There Studio (the same people who take care to fix you up with good times at events such as Sensory Cinema, The Golden Dumpling Cook Off and the legendary Round-The-World Ping Pong Showdown), One Night Fruit Stand brings Vancouverites an evening of seriously unconventional yoga fuelled by great music and a collab punch from Odd Society Spirits & The Juice Truck. Add some laid back summer vibes and a Banana Split Shack (brought to you by Brown Paper Packages Ice Cream) and who knows where the night will take you. Somewhere good, that's for sure!
Sept. 12, 7:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., secret location announced days before the event, $12.99, www.heretherestudio.com
Farm: If you can't get far out of town, you can still make it as far as Westham Island to feel like you did. This weekend, the Delta Farmland and Wildlife Trust throws down with a day of hay-wagon rides and the chance to learn about chickens and crops grown on the island and in the region. You can also milk a cow and dig up a handful of your own potatoes. The aim of the day is to give us city slickers a chance to reconnect with the land that feeds us. We think that's a great way to spend a piece of your weekend.
Sept. 12, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Westham Island Herb Farm, free admission, westhamislandherb.ca
Swarm: Vancouver's artist-run centre programming season is about to kickoff. What does that mean for you? A jam packed weekend of openings and events at a bunch of Vancouver's coolest independent, non-profit and artist-run gallerie. On Thursday night you can catch openings at The Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery, Cineworks, Grunt Gallery, Malaspina Printmakers on Granville Island, VIVO Media Arts on Main Street and The Western Front in Mount Pleasant. On Friday, hit 221A, Access Gallery, Artspeak, Fillip, Gallery Gachet, Gam Gallery, Or Gallery, and UNIT/PITT Gallery. Check out the full lineup of Swarm events at the website.
Sept. 10 & 11, various times and locations, http://www.paarc.ca/swarm16/
Music: The Eight Annual Accordion Noir Festival takes happens this weekend. This year, the theme is Born To Squeeze and the lineup of events includes Tentacles composer night at the Western Front (303 East 8th), a Deep Squeeze multimedia showcase at the Wise Hall (1882 Adanac St.) on Friday, Davy Jones's Dance Hall on Saturday (again, at the Wise), and Diver's Bell Lounge at Spartacus Books (3378 Findlay St.). The latter boasts an all-day repair booth, workshops and a parade. Folk, punk, indie rock, blue grass – even hip-hop – the accordion can handle it all. Expect performances by Wendy McNeill, Angelica Negron and Shayna Dunkelman, Kate and Rich Duo, Ana Bon-Bon, Rattletrap Ruckus, Compassion Gorilla, Elliot Vaughan, Elysse Cheadle and Geoff Berner.
Sept. 10-13, various locations, times and prices, accordionnoirfest.com
History: Head to the Museum of Anthropology this Sunday for a screening of Werner Herzog's award-winning documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. From the MOA: "In the award-winning documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams, filmmaker Werner Herzog and a small crew are given a rare chance to film inside France's Chauvet Cave, where the walls are covered with the world's oldest surviving paintings. To preserve the art, people are allowed to enter the site for only two weeks a year. Examining the 30,000-year-old drawings, Herzog discusses how the artwork represents humanity's earliest dreams with scientists and art scholars conducting research at Chauvet." Stick around after the film for a free public lecture with paleontologist Jean-Michel Geneste (Chief of Scientific Studies of the Lascaux and Chauvet Caves in France – he is featured in Herzog's film). Film Screening (3-4:30pm), Lecture (6-7pm), Reception 7-9pm. These events are free with museum admission.
Sept. 13, 3 to 9 p.m., Museum of Anthropology (6393 NW Marine Dr), $16.75, www.moa.ubc.ca
Community: Get ready for the Autumn Shift Festival on Main Street. The idea of this street festival is to celebrate the shift in seasons and the growing shift in attitudes toward sustainability, eating foods that are produced locally and growing some of your own. Expect the usual awesomeness that comes with any Main Street festival: great music, some sausage BBQing, an artisan market, gardening booths, interesting demos and – fingers crossed – a few alleyway pakoras from Chutney Villa. Note that Main Street between Broadway and East 7th Avenue, and the laneways west of Main Street and 8th Avenue to Quebec Street, will be closed to traffic so that pedestrians can wander and enjoy.
Sept. 13, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., Main Street, between Broadway and 7th, mountpleasantbia.com
Heads-up: Celebrated chef Jefferson Alvarez will be cooking a special Greasy Spoon dinner at Save On Meats on Monday, Sept. 14. If you're unfamiliar with the concept, the Greasy Spoon Supper Series invites British Columbia's best chefs to plate four courses of old-school diner fare in their own way in support of A Better Life Foundation. This is the seventh dinner of its kind. Chef Alvarez appears to be taking a Latin turn with his menu, which reads all kinds of awesome. Expect ensalada de palmito (heart of palm salad); arepas de canon falso (arepas, confit sturgeon and sofrito); asado latino (charcoal marinated beef); a dulce tres leches for dessert and some quality drinks throughout. Get your tickets now – you know it'll be a sell out.
Sept. 14, two seatings: 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., 43 West Hastings St., $95, greasyspoondiner.com