What's on in Vancouver this week: Oct 5 – 11, 2026

Thanksgiving is Monday, October 12, so this week runs straight into a long weekend, and Saturday and Sunday are its first two days. Before that, Sting plays the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on Monday night, VIFF heads into its last weekend, and Canyon Frights opens on the North Shore on Friday. Saturday is the full day: a wedding show at the Vancouver Convention Centre, the Cranberry Festival in Fort Langley and the West End market all run at once.

Monday: Sting at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre

• Sting — 3.0 Tour · Mon Oct 5, 8pm · Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St, Vancouver · A power-trio show to start the week, with a second Vancouver date the following night, Tue Oct 6, if Monday doesn't suit. Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster. · livenation.com

An 8pm start on a Monday gives you time for dinner after work without watching the clock. The theatre is downtown, a short walk from Stadium–Chinatown SkyTrain station, which usually beats looking for parking on a concert night.

Friday to Sunday: VIFF's last weekend and Canyon Frights

• VIFF 2026, final weekend · Fri Oct 9 – Sun Oct 11 (the festival wraps on Sunday) · VIFF Centre, 1181 Seymour St, and other screening venues around the city · Still running from last week, and this is the last weekend to catch festival films this year. Regular adult tickets are $22 plus GST. · viff.org
• Canyon Frights at Capilano Suspension Bridge Park · Opens Fri Oct 9 and runs daily to Nov 1; 10am–8pm this weekend · 3735 Capilano Rd, North Vancouver · A family-friendly Halloween walk through the rainforest canyon, lit up for the season, with a scavenger hunt for "goblins and ghouls of all ages". It's included with general park admission. · capbridge.com

Canyon Frights suits families, since the scavenger hunt gives kids a job on the trails. The park stays open until 8pm, so if you arrive mid-afternoon you can see the canyon in daylight first and again once the lights are on.

For VIFF, choose the screening first and plan the evening around it, since films run at more than one venue.

Saturday downtown: a wedding show and the West End market

• Vancouver Wedding Expo · Sat Oct 10, 11am–4:30pm · Vancouver Convention Centre, Canada Place · A public wedding show on the Saturday of the long weekend. Get tickets through Eventbrite. · vancouverweddingexpo.com
• West End Farmers Market · Sat Oct 10, 9am–2pm · 1100 Comox St, between Bute and Thurlow · A small, walkable Saturday market with more than 30 farms and producers. The outdoor season runs through Oct 31. · eatlocal.org

You can do both on Saturday. Do the market when it opens at 9, drop the bags at home or in the car, then head down to Canada Place for the expo, which opens at 11. It's a walk through the West End and Coal Harbour, or a short bus ride if it's raining.

Going to the expo with a partner or a parent? Agree on your rough date, guest count and budget before you leave home. It makes each conversation on the floor quicker and easier to compare afterwards.

The long weekend begins: Fort Langley, Mount Pleasant and VanDusen

The outdoor markets are into their last few weekends, and there's a festival out in the Fraser Valley if you want a day away from the city.

• Fort Langley Cranberry Festival · Sat Oct 10, 10am–4pm, with a Lions Club pancake breakfast from 8am · Glover Road and throughout the village, Fort Langley, Langley Township · This is the festival's 31st year. The historic village on the Fraser River turns into a street festival, tied to a real harvest: cranberry bogs are a working part of the Fraser Valley farmland around it. · tourism-langley.ca
• Mount Pleasant Farmers Market · Sun Oct 11, 10am–2pm · Dude Chilling Park, 8th Ave & Guelph St · More than 35 farms and producers fill a well-loved neighbourhood park on Sunday morning. The outdoor season runs through Nov 1. · eatlocal.org
• Harvest Days at VanDusen Botanical Garden · Sat Oct 10 and Sun Oct 11, 10:30am–4:30pm, plus Thanksgiving Monday · 5251 Oak St · Still running, with its last day on Oct 18. Included with garden admission; adults pay $15.81 plus GST. · vandusengarden.org

Fort Langley is a trip out of the city, so make it the day's main plan rather than a stop on the way somewhere. If you're driving out for the pancake breakfast, leave early: a street festival on a holiday weekend tends to draw a crowd, and parking in a small village can fill up.

If you're staying in town, Sunday makes an easy two-stop day. Start at the Mount Pleasant market when it opens at 10, have lunch nearby, then go across to VanDusen for the afternoon; the garden program runs until 4:30pm. Harvest Days also runs on Thanksgiving Monday, so if Sunday goes to cooking for the family, the garden can wait a day.

Planning something of your own?

A long weekend is when a lot of families and friend groups finally get together, and some of those plans start to grow: a Thanksgiving dinner for twenty, an engagement party, a birthday later in the fall. Once a gathering outgrows your own kitchen, it's easier to sort out if you start looking for help a few weeks ahead.

Photos by Joshua Webb, Hyukman Kwon, antony whittaker, Mike Knibbs and Guohua Song on Unsplash and Pexels.