Vancouver Adventures: Our Picks for February 9 to 15

Usher in the year of the boar, swap some sneakers, sip the finest hot chocolate in town + more

1. Sneaker Con – Saturday, February 9

Sneaker heads can check out rare finds, chat with other footwear fanatics, or head into the trading pit to find an elusive pair of special shoes.
Vancouver Convention Centre West, 1055 Canada Place, Vancouver; 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.; Tickets $28.55

2. Royal Blood: Music for Henry VIII – Saturday, February 9

Part of the Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble The King’s Singers’ 50th anniversary season and North American tour, this performance delves into King Henry VIII’s life and legacy with compositions from his turbulent court in the early 16th century, featuring works by King Henry VIII, William Byrd, Thomas Weelkes, Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten.
Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, 6265 Crescent Road, Vancouver;  7:30 pm, Tickets from $18

3. Vancouver Chinatown Spring Festival – Sunday, February 10

Celebrate the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Boar with the 46th Vancouver Chinatown Spring Festival parade’s lion dances, cultural dance troupes, marching bands and martial arts demonstrations. The 1.3-kilometre long route starts at the Millennium Gate on Pender Street (between Shanghai Alley and Taylor Street), heads east along Pender, turns south onto Gore, then west onto Keefer before ending at Abbott.
11 a.m.; Free; Details online

4. Year of the Pig Temple Fair – Sunday, February 10

Celebrating the 12th animal in the Chinese zodiac, the pig is a symbol of prosperity. This family-friendly event includes a wishing tree, ping pong with Frida & Frank, paper-cutting pig designs, Dragon Boat B.C. demonstration, instrument discovery with VSO School of Music, Gong Fu Cha tastings and the ????? (Suk-Fong Nay Ho Mah) / Suk-Fong, How Are You? exhibition by artist Paul Wong.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, 578 Carrall Street, Vancouver; 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Free; Details online

5. Fortune Food Fair – Sunday, February 10

Attending the Lunar New Year parade? Fill up at this one-day-only food fair pop-up at Fortune Sound Club, with tasty bites from Bao Down, Westcoast Poke, DD Mau Chinatown, Maria Gamboa’s Pilipino Pop-Up, the Pop-Up Bar (featuring cocktails and spiked bubble tea) and Dickson Li’s Dicky’s Dumps’ wonton station.
Fortune Sound Club, 147 East Pender Street, Vancouver; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Free; Details online

6. Hot Chocolate Festival – Until Thursday, February 14

Treat your sweetie or drown your single sorrows in a warming mug of hot chocolate during the run-up to Valentine’s Day. The ninth annual celebration of all things cocoa, features flavoured concoctions from a range of cafes in the city.
Details online

7. Night Court – Thursday, February 14

What could be more romantic than a drink in Vancouver Police Museum’s autopsy suite or hearing historical facts about Vancouver-area murders in the old city morgue? Take bae to the museum after-hours for a night of special activities, a beer and wine bar and plenty of Vancouver crime history.
Vancouver Police Museum, 240 East Cordova Street, Vancouver; 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Tickets $25; 19 and up

8. JFL Northwest Festival – Thursday, February 14 to Saturday, February 23

Previously known as the Just For Laughs Festival, this comedy extravaganza comes back to Vancouver to showcase stand-up routines by and conversations with Aziz Ansari, Seth Rogen, Whitney Cummings, Ken Jeong, Howie Mandel and Gabriel Iglesias among many others. Look out for the Best of the West with local comedy legends such as Nasty Women improv and Hip Bang.
Various times, locations and prices; Details online

9. Puccini’s La Boheme — Thursday, February 14 to Sunday, February 24

Updated to a setting in the 1920s when American artists and writers flocked to Paris to live the bohemian life, Vancouver Opera’s tragic love story of passion, poetry and poverty features uplifting humorous moments as well as stellar performances by soprano France Bellemare, tenor Yosep Kang and baritone Phillip Addis, as directed by world-renowned conductor Judith Yan.
Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton Street, Vancouver; 7:30 p.m. on February 14th, 16th, 19th and 21st, plus 2 p.m. on February 24th; Tickets from $41.75

10. Black History Month film series — Until Tuesday, February 26

Celebrate Black History Month with VIFF Vancity Theatre’s program of events, which includes screenings of African superhero movie Supa Modo (February 11th); concert documentary Jimi Hendrix: Electric Church (February 11th); slam poetry documentary Don’t Be Nice (with live slam poetry in the atrium, February 12th); a film about the first African American woman to run for U.S. President, Chisholm ’72; Unbought and Unbossed (February 25th); Spike Lee’s Blackkklansman (February 25th); and the Afro-futurist classic Sankofa (February 26th).
VIFF Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street, Vancouver; Various times and prices; Details online