The long weekend is here and that means there’s more time for fun activities! Keep your eyes out for all the firework shows happening this weekend!

Saturday, August 4th

Sunfest Country Music Festival

What: Dance the weekend away to the best country music around!
Where: 811 Youbou Rd,
Lake Cowichan
When: Thursday, August 2nd – Sunday, August 5th
Cost: General admission for the full event is $269. Click here to purchase.

Meditation 2.0 – Beyond Mindfulness with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

What: Join a meditation event unlike anything you’ve experienced before! It’s not everyday that you get the chance to learn from an acclaimed spiritual guide.
Invented thousands of years ago, refreshed for the 21st century. Experience the greater power of meditation and the next level of well being with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
A movement empowering British Columbians to do more of the things they love by going deeper into meditation. A powerful way to have it all. The ease and depth of these events will resonate as much with beginners as with advanced practitioners.
Where: Victoria Conference Center (VCC)
720 Douglas Street
When: 7:30 pm – 9 pm
Cost: $60

The James Bay Community Market

What: You will love the fine handcrafted wood items, whimsical home décor and naturally crafted body products. We also have top-quality traditional baked goods, speciality sauces and seasonings and dried soup mixes. Hungry? You will find prepared food you can eat right on site in our picnic area. We also have a vast array of farm-fresh products from farm-fresh meats to seasonal veggies and fruits.
Where: The Corner of Menzies and Superior Street
When: 9 am – 3 pm
Cost: Free admission

Ship Point Market

What: This weekly-weekend market features high-quality artist-made goods, delicious food trucks, and some of Victoria’s finest local musicians.
Where: Ship Point
When: 10:30 am – 10:30 pm
Cost: Admission is Free!

ViVa! Victoria Latin Fest

What: Let’s celebrate the Latin culture with live music, dancing, sports and performances. Viva Victoria Latin Fest brings together Latin artists and dance performers from different Latin American countries. The festival recreates the atmosphere of a vibrant city plaza in Latin America. The arts showcased during this one day event includes live musical bands, traditional Latin dances, kids activities, Zumba classes, international and local foods.
Where: Centennial Square
Centennial Square
When: 12 pm – 7 pm
Cost: Free!

Anti-Tourism Walking Tour

What: Not your typical tour of Victoria! Join artist David LaRiviere for an anti-tourism walking tour of the city, stopping at sites featured in stories told by participants of his media arts project #everysordiddetail. The tour will begin at Open Space with an artist talk about the project from 2-2:30pm. An “anti-tourist” project opposing the touristic narratives of the city in favour of fragmentary or messy bits of real life, #everysordiddetail seeks to create an alternative and uncensored map of the city.
Where: Open Space Gallery
510 Fort Street
When: 2 pm – 4 pm
Cost: Free

Ceremony of the Flags

What: Join more than 100 Royal Canadian Sea Cadets from across Canada as they celebrate the Sea Cadet Centennial with the Ceremony of the Flags at the B.C. Legislature. This historic tradition involves ceremonial rifles and field guns, a large band and an incredible amount of pride from Canada’s finest youth leaders.
Where: BC Legislature
When: 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm
Cost: Free!

Free-B 2018: Mean Girls

What: Teenage Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) was educated in Africa by her scientist parents. When her family moves to the suburbs of Illinois, Cady finally gets to experience public school and gets a quick primer on the cruel, tacit laws of popularity that divide her fellow students into tightly knit cliques. She unwittingly finds herself in the good graces of an elite group of cool students dubbed “the Plastics,” but Cady soon realizes how her shallow group of new friends earned this nickname.
Where: Cameron Bandshell @ Beacon Hill Park
Victoria
When: 9 pm – 11 pm
Cost: free

Stand-up Comedy Fundraiser

What: The Gorge Waterway Action Society and Hecklers Bar & Grill are teaming up to bring you an evening of laughter and fun! This fundraiser will benefit the Gorge Waterway Action Society to help us continue our conservation efforts in the Gorge and continue to bring environmental education to the community at the Gorge Waterway Nature House.
Where: Hecklers Bar & Grill
123 Gorge Rd. E.
When: 8 pm – 12 am
Cost: $15

Fireworks at Butchart Gardens

• What: Every Saturday until September 1st, Butchart Gardens put on a brilliant fireworks display.
• When: Saturday, July 28 – Butchart Gardens opens up at regular hours and the fireworks go off around 9:45 p.m. tonight.
• Where:  800 Benvenuto Avenue – Brentwood Bay

Sunday, August 5th

BC Day Weekend & Victoria Symphony Splash

What: On Sunday, August 5, 2018, tens of thousands of people will take to Victoria’s Inner Harbour for the 29th annual Victoria Symphony Splash. From a floating stage in the Inner Harbour, the VS orchestra and special guests will perform, ending with a grand finale performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture – with fireworks of course!
Where: Inner Harbour
When: 1 pm – 10 pm

Monday, August 6th

Habourcats + Fireworks after the game

What: Don’t miss the last HarbourCats fireworks show of the season! This time honoured tradition is just as instrumental to ball games in Victoria as peanuts and crackerjack and we can’t wait to watch their awesome display.
Where: Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park, 1014 Caledonia Avenue
When: Monday, August 6th, fireworks start right after the game, between 9 – 10 p.m.
Admission: Fireworks are included with purchase of tickets. Adult tickets start at $15. Click here to purchase.

Fight the Pipeline Fundraiser Night

What: Please join  for an evening of music, drinks, a raffle, silent auction, and speakers, including hereditary Chief Eric Pelkey of the Tsawout First Nation at the Victoria Event Center on Monday, August 6th! Live music will be provided by Singer/Songwriter/Activist Peach Guevara. Together we will be raising money to help pay for the legal fees of protesters charged while resisting the advances of the Trans Mountain Pipeline. Proceeds from this event will also help the Tsawout First Nations repair a traditional canoe to be used asserting Indigenous title and rights on the Salish Sea.
Where: Victoria Event Centre
1415 Broad Street
When: Doors open at 7 pm
Cost: $10

Dancing in the Square

What: VBDS and the City of Victoria bring you “Dancing in the Square”.
Every Monday evening, July 9 – August 20. 7 Weeks of Dancing!
FREE beginner ballroom workshops 7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
DANCING with Live Band & DJs 8:00 – 9:30 p.m.
Practice your new-found skills and your old dance moves as well!
Today you’ll learn how to dance the Rumba
Where: Centennial Square
When: 7 pm – 9:30 pm
Cost: Free

Journey to the Reef Movie Screening

What: Journey to the Reef is a Big Wave Surf movie set in the Pacific Northwest. The film follows a group of world-class professional surfers as they take on the challenge of one of the most dangerous waves in the world, Nelscott Reef.
Where: Patagonia Victoria
616 Yates Street
When: 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Cost: $10

See also:

• Three fireworks displays happening in and around Victoria this long weekend
• Sunfest Country Music Festival is back in Cowichan Valley this weekend