On Friday, we are off to Europe (Scotland and Portugal) for a much needed vacation! So there are not going to be many posts for a while, until well after we’re back. This past week, before we headed out, we had a couple of fun local events - Julius Caesar at Bard on the Beach and Feast of Fields.

Bard on the Beach

Thursday night we went to our first performance of Bard on the Beach for this season. And sadly, our only performance, as the season is pretty much over. Normally we get to 2 or three plays, but this year has been busy. I had decided on Julius Caesar, and headed over after dinner to enjoy the play.

The setting is always lovely - looking out over the water in Vanier Park, with the big tents over the stage. I really liked the stage set-up for the play, but sadly that was the highlight for me. I’ve seen Julius Caesar a few times over the years, and I have to say this was one of the weakest performances I’ve personally seen. I really didn’t find many of the main characters all that compelling in their performances. But still, it’s a great play that is very relevant to our times. It’s amazing how often that is true of Shakespeare.

Regardless, it was a fun evening and I am really looking forward to next year’s lineup!

Walking up to our first play of the season.

The main entrance.

The stage set was pretty interesting. They incorporated some screen to change the scenery, and generally it worked well.

Feast of Fields

On Sunday, we joined our friend Katie at Feast of Fields, and event that I was surprised to find out has been happening around Vancouver for 28 years. By their own description, “Feast of Fields is an annual local food celebration and fundraiser, held each year on a different farm in Metro Vancouver.

Feast of Fields is a wandering gourmet harvest festival that strengthens the connections between farm folks and city folks. With a wine glass and linen napkin in hand, guests stroll across farmers’ fields, through barns, past tractors, and around chicken coops, listening to live music, and tasting gourmet creations from top BC chefs, farmers, fishers, ranchers, food artisans, and beverage producers.”

The day was a lot of fun! The food was great, the drinks were plentiful, and there was a silent auction that I got a good deal on some beer from one of the vendors. We were pleasantly full at the end of the day when it was time to grab the bus back home. This was a really fun event, and we may have to make this an annual one!

To get to the event, we decided to take a shuttle from a local subway station. Figured it was better than driving. Sadly, it was an old-school school bus - that brought back some memories!

The setting was amazing, with the tents set in fields of sunflowers.

Each of the tents housed food and beverage options, all of which were excellent. There were some line-ups, but not many.

As a working farm, there were many things growing that we wanted to check out.

This was the worst line up of the day - but the mini burgers were well worth waiting for!

The farm is a working teaching farm - they bring school groups in to help with planting food and they get to experience the whole process, from planting to harvesting.

Each of the tents had a unique collection of food and drinks. The food was mostly finger foods - which made sense given that you were walking around.

The fields were all in different states - this was a field of different melons, all ready for harvest. Beside it was a winter cover crop of oats and peas that will be plowed under come the spring.