A Renaissance market town at faire time, in the gorgeous summer of British Columbia -- how awesome…read moreis that! There are so many activities and features for the family to enjoy -- jousting to watch, children's games, fairies flitting around, jugglers, magicians, falconry, wandering minstrels, dancers, and all set around a total-immersion audience-participation all-day theater. Each year the plot progresses, and yet each year stands alone, entertaining and historically informative, with drama, intricate sword fights, royals and commoners, pirates and naval officers, Scotsmen and Spaniards. The enthusiastic and delightful crew of performers and musicians really make this experience special -- our family has been going to this Faire for years, and we love it! I'm particularly fond of gift shopping there with all of the amazing handcrafted items available -- I even get some gorgeous clothing items there. Also, this is one of the few places in Canada where one can hear authentic British Isles popular music from hundreds of years ago -- while drinking mead :-) The BC Renaissance Festival is truly a treasure -- long may the revelry continue!

From the owner: BCRF arose from a desire to provide an opportunity for talented performers and artisans to showcase…read moretheir historically based / inspired skills and entertain the public in a historically themed setting. We strive to provide entertainment combined with education to all ages in a safe space, producing an encompassing experience. Parents have praised us for our games and rides area as well as our safety factors around the horses and potential risks. Adults and children alike have enjoyed the fulfilling day at the faire. We are bringing World history to life within the comforts of the Modern Age. We are not confined to just the English Renaissance. 'Renfests' all over North America have features and entertainment relating to Folklore (elves, dwarves, dragons, unicorns, etc.), Viking, Asian, European Cultures, Victorian (both realistic and fiction-steampunk), Pirates, and much more. Vendors can not only be influenced by history but also fantasy, fiction, culture or myth. Time period inspired products and entertainment can reach back as far as the stone age and as modern as Victorian. GOOD NEWS!! Jousting is back - Check the webpage for more news and look for the gofundme titled Historicalhorses NOTE: We have changed our dates and location. Please see the webpage for more information.

I liked two of the three vendors we tried. The last one was the grizzly and unfortunately I found a…read morehair in my ribs cooked in. Definitely won't be back to that one again next year.

Great way to eat ribs while getting sunburned…read more Parking is quite awful (Rocky Point Park). Try parking a few blocks away, on the other side of the tracks. The venue (2018) consists of a long beer garden tent, and a large eating area. Unfortunately most of the areas aren't covered, so be sure to bring sunscreen. There are also some demo booths for various companies. Nothing worth checking out. The vendors probably do the same circuit every year. I recognized most of the names from PNE. Food is quite expensive. Most dishes are $20 or so. While the portions of ribs look great, most of it is bone. My friend and I left hungry. It sure is tasty though. Neat little event to check out during the summer, but not a must-see.

We drove up from Oregon to visit the Festival of Lights and we were very lucky with the weather! It…read morewas a gorgeous and magical evening and I would recommend it.

A great way to spend the dark evening. Lines are long, vaccine passport required... but if you can…read moredeal with that, it's great. The place has lights like no one's business, and it's great for the kiddos. There are lots of people, so if you don't like that, don't go. They have limited food options during the event, and the mini-donut stand had a VERY long line. I'm sure they are delicious, but yeah, not waiting for that. The trees, lake, random objects are all dressed in lights, hello Christmas Vacation.

I have been to a lot of outdoor events such as food truck festivals, Craft market, Italian Day,…read moreFusion events and etc. This one is definitely not wow. No fancy concerts here. They have low cost performances. No beer garden here either. This is basically a city event put up to teach kids to recycle. Its not wow. Food trucks were ok but not as much as say the Columbia Street festival. I would say 80% of the stalls are put up by the City of Richmond. I guess its great for kids. But for grown up not really. I also think its due to the demographic of Richmond. Maybe Richmond has more young families and Asian so this event tends to be tailored to them. If I haven't gone to so many outdoor festivals this year, I probably would have enjoyed this one. There are limited parking here and one option was to risk getting your car towed by parking inside of Richmond Center. The event is free and yes the ice rink is also open to the public for free that day (ice rink is owned by the City of Richmond). It was ok but I guess my interest is not to learn about recycling at 10+ different stalls.

Went last year but this years Fest knocked it out of the ball park!…read more Lots of food options & great entertainment from Kunda Africa band as well as Tokyo Police Club! Lots of food trucks & great food sampling at the culinary stage. Fun for the whole family & friends. For some reason this festival only runs on Friday & Saturday - on a long weekend ... why organizers!?? Tried the Pad Thai chicken dish from the Thai Box on Truck food truck - it took awhile to serve us - they were extremely busy - it was well worth the 20 minute wait! Pressure will be on for next years event to be just as good if not better - good luck organizers!

We came this weekend to Victoria specifically because we had lucked into this annual Festival on a…read moreprevious visit and were really impressed. However, this year the published times did not match the venues nor the performers. So we ended up seeing the same performance over and over. And apparently the venue in the Inner Harbour has nothing to do with the Festival and the performances that we saw there were just as good if not better.

A must see, they have 7 stages, shows start at 12pm and finish at 10pm. Street performers and they…read moreare great at what they do.

First time checking out this festival. I enjoyed the different variety of foods. There was a…read moreBlack forest mushroom stand where they sell Alder tree logs for $45 inoculated with chestnut mushroom spores. The Lummi Nation island salmon lunch plate was $18 but it was wild salmon, pasta, bread and beans + water bottle. I like how they air grilled/smoked the fish. That line was the longest. Trident also had a stall where they were giving away shirts, key chains, fish oil, chocolate swag. The boat building offered a demo on sea urchins which i missed out on. They also had a Whatcom Maritime museum station where kids can build wooden boats. Enjoy coming to this place eventhough a bit far for us. It was nice to be by the water and free parking.

So much fun packed in two days. Today's weather was perfect for the Seafeast...sunny and hot at…read moretimes but dry the whole day. We got there around 12 and stay until 5:30pmish. Parking at that time was a bit challenging but we manage to find a free parking lot close by and walk toward the festival. Once there we saw tons of vendors with all kind of marine info and education. My girls (ages 9 & 11) found the "Passport" section where the girls get their passport stamp as they go thru and learn about each booth. I find myself learning a few things too. Food court was loaded with an abundance of sea and non-sea food options. Nice that most if not all took credit cards. My meal pick was Fish and Chips from Fork & Fin food truck. A huge portion for $12( definitely shareable.) Girls got a huge hotdog ($5) from a hotdog stand. For dessert we grab some ice cream($2) next door to the hotdog stand. Only wish there was a water station so we could re-fill our water bottles instead of having to buy the plastic water bottle. Maybe next year a water conservation vendor would sponsor that to keep us water drinker from contributing to the plastic landfill and from the ocean. We headed to the main stage with all our food goodies to eat while enjoying some live music. Definitely a fun family festival for the whole family.

One of my other loves in life, apart from food, is flowers…read more When I found out that Agassiz has a Tulip Festival, I knew I had to visit. Running from mid April to the end of April, the Agassiz Tulip Festival is a good alternative to the famous Skagit Valley Festival in the US. Of course, it's at a much smaller scale, but it's still picturesque, with the fields nestled among the mountains. Parking is $5, and adult entrance fees are $3. The vast fields are quite a spectacle. Rows and rows of vibrant tulips provide an opportunity to snap beautiful pictures. Soak in the sun, walk around the large fields, and perhaps also purchase bulbs or fresh cut tulips to bring home. With a scenic drive to Agassiz, this festival makes this a great springtime activity!

Luminara is a wonderful free annual festival that occurs on a Saturday in July at St. Ann's…read moreAcademy. This lantern festival attracts between 15,000-20,000 people. The festival features installation art, costumed performers, and lots of lanterns. Kids will love Luminara and so will adults.

Having grown up in Burnaby it was quite a surprise to have recently learnt that the Blues and Roots…read moreannual festival started since 2000! It was a really nice treat to listen to some local Canadian artist right by the lake with some great food trucks available at the festival too. They also have the convenience of free shuttle to and from right in the heart of Burnaby Brentwood skytrain station so you can drink without having to worry to drive back home. For this year the line of artist included Feist, Lord of Huron, War and Treaty, Southern Avenue, Speed Control, William Prince, and Dan Mangan. The festival starts at 12 pm and lasts till 10 pm so the are hours of music to enjoy. The tickets are about $50 which is very decent for the duration of the festival and transportation that is included! Very well organized event!

Okay, so I understand this is only your 4th year, but if you want to make it to #5, and if this is…read morewhat you call a Garlic festival, you better get some reading glasses. 1) Don't charge folks for entering until you beef up the number of vendors, and get the garlic vendors to take credit cards! Having just 3 food stalls was a joke and your website mentions 17 types of garlic, there might have been 5 at the most! That or cut the entrance price in half, at $8 a head, even with a $1 savings from the coupon on the website, I felt really ripped off. 2) If you get food vendors, make sure that they offer a "garlic" themed menu item! Only vendor who even had garlic in their foodstuffs was a gyro place, and that was because of the sauce recipes, not by design. 3) Try focusing on either garlic or the rockabilly theme, really, to me and others around me, it didn't work. I actually felt sorry for one the main groups, when they finished up their set, of the 8 people standing around, none of them were really listening nor did they clap once they were finished, it was rather embarrassing. 4) Post consistent signage up around the area. Saw maybe 5 signs, of those 3 of them noted a CORN festival, not GARLIC!! 5) If you offer t-shirts, at $25, make sure your stall takes credit cards. 6) Educate your garlic vendors, spoke to each one of them, while looking for one who'd take a credit card, at $10 a pound I didn't have enough Canuck-cash with me. Also, it would have been nice to have the vendors to put up some better signage, most only posted the price per pound and a few listed the varieties they had for sale, would have also been nice to have a brief description of the type and flavor profile. On the plus, side, staff at the ticket gates were very nice and personable, the sani-cans were clean, and there was a decent amount of FREE parking....2 stars for the free parking by the way.