Editor's Note: Globe B.C. has joined forces with Scout Magazine to give you the best of what's happening in Vancouver this weekend. For a full week's worth of listings, head over to the complete Scout List, updated each Monday.
Live music: The Sofa Sessions are a unique opportunity to experience live music. The premise is that someone in the city offers a cool venue and the Sofa Sessions crew wrangles a musician or musicians to fill it with music. Rather than line-ups and fixed seating with the band on a stage, you get musicians sitting around on sofas playing in living rooms, kitchens, galleries or back yards. Sofa Sessions have brought artists such as Justin Rutledge, Hannah Georgas and Carolyn Mark to play small scale performances around town. This weekend Sofa Sessions presents two-time Juno nominee Jeremy Fisher, who is based in Toronto, with an opening set from Vancouver's Robert Wilson. The CBC's Paolo Pietropaolo will host at a secret venue in the Point Grey neighbourhood. Proceeds go to support Imagine1day (a non-profit organization that provides primary education for children in Ethiopia) and wine will be provided by Orofino.
Saturday April 26, Location revealed with ticket purchase, $40, sofasessions.ca
Affordable art: Phantoms in the Front Yard is an eight-person artists' collective comprising established local artists who use the human figure as their muse. Phantoms will do a one-night-only show at the Burrard Hotel on Friday night. The crew will take over three hotel rooms to exhibit hundreds of miniature paintings and drawings (everything shown will be smaller than 10 inches by 10 inches) based on the theme, "Everyone I've Never Known." As explained by Phantoms in the Front Yard member Jay Senetchko, the show is about "strangers who have influenced us but we've never really known, or, strangers we feel like we know but have never met. From Charles Darwin to your local bank teller…" The art will be in the $200-$500 range, and there will be music, a cash bar, and an after-party (also free).
Friday, April 25, 6-8:30 p.m. followed by party, The Burrard Hotel (1100 Burrard St.), phantomsinthefrontyard.com
Community: The development of the site is still in the early planning stages, but The Vancouver Park Board is planning to slap a new park on corner of Yukon Street and 17th Avenue. It's not often a community gets to be in on the planning stages of a new green space, so get involved by attending an open house on Saturday. Learn more about the project, offer your insights and impressions, and swap ideas with your neighbours.
Saturday, April 26, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 17th Avenue and Yukon Street, vancouver.ca
Architecture: The Vancouver Heritage Foundation is hosting its annual Vancouver Special Tour this weekend. Look inside five new and renovated Vancouver Specials. It's a one day, ticketed, self-guided event that celebrates innovation and design and asks the important question: What can you do to make one of the least appealing architectural styles livable in a modern context? From Vancouver Heritage Foundation: "We'll visit a Joe Wai Special – an architectural style unique to Strathcona, as well as an unexpectedly beautiful in-law suite, and a Special constructed entirely of cinder block."
Saturday, April 26, 12-3 p.m., Various locations, $30, vancouverheritagefoundation.org
Bike swap: It's getting to be that time of the year when we can start to think about cruising around the city on a bike (and not just for transportation but the mere sun-on-your-face-with-a-breeze pleasure of it). Don't have a bike or looking to trade in your old ride for something slicker? You're in luck, because this weekend brings with it a vintage bicycle swap at Britannia Centre. Buy, sell or trade bikes as well as parts and tools. Cruisers, BMX, road bikes and muscle bikes – they'll all be there, looking for new homes.
Sunday, April 27, 10 a.m., Britannia Community Centre (1661 Napier)