BeatRoute Magazine B.C. print e-edition - November 2016

PHOTO BY CHRIS STERN
eaSTSide cUlTURe cRaWl
beloved annual arts festival celebrates 20 years
East Vancouver shows its tasty bits in the shadow of a murder of crows.
YASMINE SHEMESH
vancoUveR cRaFT cideR FeSTival
first-ever event cheers to local industry, quality production, and community
In the early nineties, a group of East
Vancouver artists decided to share
their work and creative processes
with the community. The main reason
for the open house, which ran out of
Paneficio Studios, was to fundraise for
political movements close to home —
supporting friends who’d been arrested
protesting Clayoquot Sound, raising
money to help a neighbour whose
house burnt down, rallying for friends
suffering from AIDS. “We started out
having very much of a cause aspect to
it,” says visual artist and muralist Richard
Tetrault. “And then, of course, it also
became an exhibition of our work and
a chance to, you know, sell some work
and meet people and all that. The two
of them worked in tandem quite nicely.”
With each passing year, more
studios become involved. The small
event quickly grew into a myriad of
open houses coinciding their dates on
the same weekend in November and,
soon, it was attracting thousands of
people. Celebrating its 20th anniversary
this year, the Eastside Culture
Crawl continues to facilitate a deep
connection between the community
and the creativity that thrives within it.
A few special events help celebrate the
Crawl’s milestone. A discussion series,
Talking Art, has eight artists speaking about
what informs their work. There is also an
exhibition, As The Crow Flies, which includes
70 artists who have been part of the Crawl for
the last two decades. Arranged salon-style
with the pieces mounted closely together,
the exhibition is held at a variety of venues
from The Cultch to The Arts Factory.
Tetrault will have two paintings on
display in As The Crow Flies. The images,
done with acrylic and graphite, are of
crows — frequent subjects in his work
(he even segued them into the Crawl’s
official logo, which he came up with).
“In some ways, they’re personality
stand-ins for my protagonists in my
paintings in the Downtown Eastside,”
he explains, referencing his oft on-site
location. “In other words, they kind of take
the place, sometimes, of my human figures.
They’re a presence that’s always there
and that’s very vacillating between dark
and light.”
He continues, “Crows and ravens were
here long before the city was, but now that
the city is here, they adapt to it. So, their kind
of contemporary landscape is alleyways as
opposed to old growth forests. And I just
find that really interesting. One of the birds
that have persisted to make their livelihood
in the urban landscape.”
And like the crows that watch
over the community from treetops and
telephone wires, the Eastside Culture
Crawl is, too, something deeply imbedded
in East Vancouver’s identity.
Eastside Culture Crawl runs from November
17 – 23. For a map of participating studios,
visit culturecrawl.ca.
YASMINE SHEMESH
There is far more to cider than that stuff
you drank in high school. You know
the kind — the sickly sweet mixture that
hurts both your molars and your stomach
lining after a couple of sips. But that massproduced
swill is a world away from the
flavourful ciders that us British Columbians
have fermenting in our own backyard. In fact,
the province is a bounty of cideries — many
of which will be showcased at the Vancouver
Craft Cider Festival on November 27.
The inaugural annual event (which
sold out quickly) is presented by the
Vancouver branch of the Campaign for Real
Ale Society. The non-profit organization is
behind the popular CiderWISE festival, but
while CiderWISE includes gluten-free beers
and ciders from Washington, Oregon, and
Spain, the VCCF will only focus on BC-made
cider. After all, says David Perry, president
of CAMRA Vancouver, supporting and
promoting local industry and community
is at the heart of CAMRA’s mandate.
In choosing participating cideries,
CAMRA worked with craft cider bar
Orchard & the Sea. As the only of its kind in
the province, the Vancouver establishment
had a discerning insight on whom the festival
could highlight. “We wanted places that are
producing, if not exclusively, predominately
cider,” adds Perry.
Amongst the featured cideries are
Scenic Road Cider Co., Salt Spring Wild
Cider, and Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse.
The latter produces some of Perry’s personal
favourites. Of note is their award-winning
Rumrunner — the apples that make up the
cider are homegrown, hand pressed, and
then aged in rum-soaked bourbon barrels
for six months. The result is dry
and slightly carbonated, retaining
gorgeous rum profiles with rich
hints of brown sugar.
The VCCF will also have
educational component where
attendees get to learn more about the
long history of cider, dating back to its
believed birthplace in Spain, as well as
Giving apples their day in a grain dominated world.
the niche of land-based ciders (cideries
that own their own orchards). And, of
course, there will be food pairings to
accompany the tastings, with glutenfree
options to accommodate those
with wheat sensitivities.
With its vast spread of cider
varieties and inclusive community
atmosphere, VCCF promises to be a
delicious evening of discovery — with
none of that sickly sweet stuff.
Vancouver Craft Cider Festival is held at
The Beaumont Studios on November 27.
November 2016 CITY
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