What's on in Vancouver, Canada through the year

Quiet — the editor's quiet month, Winter / Christmas break in Canada

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: North Shore ski season (5 Dec – 5 Apr (usually))

Quiet — the editor's quiet month

Nothing new starts in February.

Still on: North Shore ski season (5 Dec – 5 Apr (usually))

Busy — March break / semaine de relâche in Canada

• Nature

  Cherry blossom

  15 Mar – 20 Apr · usually

  Forty thousand trees, planted street by street, and one of the longest blossom runs of any city: earliest in Kitsilano, latest in the east.

• Festival

  Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival

  27 Mar – 12 Apr

  Three weeks of walks, picnics and a Japan fair at VanDusen built around the trees, and the reason the city treats blossom as a season rather than a week. Source ↗

Still on: North Shore ski season (5 Dec – 5 Apr (usually))

Shoulder season — between the peaks

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Cherry blossom (15 Mar – 20 Apr (usually)), Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival (27 Mar – 12 Apr), North Shore ski season (5 Dec – 5 Apr (usually))

Shoulder season — between the peaks

Nothing new starts in May.

Busy — between the peaks, Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival

• Festival

  Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival

  15–30 Jun · usuallyMajor festivalCrowded

  A late-June weekend of racing on False Creek, hundreds of crews in the heats and a festival site along the seawall. Free to watch, and the seawall path is busy with it all weekend. Source ↗

Peak crowds — the editor's peak month, Summer break in Canada

• Season

  The dry season

  1 Jul – 10 Sep · usually

  Ten weeks of reliably dry, warm weather is the whole summer here, and it is why the city empties onto the beaches and the North Shore trails.

• Opening

  Alpine trails clear

  1 Jul – 5 Oct · usuallyTrail season

  The high trails in Garibaldi and on the North Shore only lose their snow in late June or July; before that the lakes are frozen and the routes need axes. Source ↗

• Hazard

  Wildfire smoke risk

  15 Jul – 15 Sep · usuallySmoke season

  Smoke from fires in the interior can settle over the city for days at a time in a bad year, turning the best-weather month into the worst air of the year. Source ↗

Peak crowds — the editor's peak month, The PNE fair

• Festival

  The PNE fair

  15 Aug – 8 Sep · usuallyMajor festivalCrowded

  The old exhibition grounds run a two-and-a-half week fair to Labour Day, which is the end of the Vancouver summer in the same way school is. Source ↗

Still on: The dry season (1 Jul – 10 Sep (usually)), Alpine trails clear (1 Jul – 5 Oct (usually)), Wildfire smoke risk (15 Jul – 15 Sep (usually))

Busy — between the peaks, The PNE fair

Nothing new starts in September.

Still on: The dry season (1 Jul – 10 Sep (usually)), Alpine trails clear (1 Jul – 5 Oct (usually)), Wildfire smoke risk (15 Jul – 15 Sep (usually)), The PNE fair (15 Aug – 8 Sep (usually))

Busy — between the peaks, Vancouver International Film Festival

• Nature

  Salmon run

  1 Oct – 10 Nov · usuallyWildlife season

  Spawning salmon come up the Capilano and the Adams River east of the city through October, strongest in the years the cycle peaks.

• Festival

  Vancouver International Film Festival

  1–11 OctCrowded

  Eleven days of screenings downtown at the start of October, which is when the rain comes back and the city admits it is indoors again. Source ↗

Still on: Alpine trails clear (1 Jul – 5 Oct (usually))

Quiet — the editor's quiet month

Nothing new starts in November.

Still on: Salmon run (1 Oct – 10 Nov (usually))

Quiet — the editor's quiet month, Winter / Christmas break in Canada

• Season

  North Shore ski season

  5 Dec – 5 Apr · usually

  Grouse, Cypress and Seymour are twenty to forty minutes from downtown and open when the freezing level drops, usually in December. Rain at the base is part of it.