British Columbia

What do a Purple Pirate, dance, symphony, blues, whisky, craft beer, dogs, and Lion Bear Fox all have in common? They’re all a part of the amazing Festival Nanaimo

"Sausage on a bun with sauerkraut,” Kris Kringle requested as I sat across from him at Sandy’s Ukrainian Kitchen in Nanaimo.

Throughout the year, Fort Steele is known for bringing history to life.

Let’s clarify something right away. The Headbangers in this article are not the professional WWE wrestlers, nor are they long-haired musicians tossing their locks to the music.  

MoM, formerly known as Music on the Mountain is now held in Fort St. James, B.C., is no exception. This year it goes Aug. 19 to 21.

“If you’re not on Island Time, you want to be,” Tracy Morgan says as she hands me a freshly-tapped pint of Longwood’s Island Time Lager

It’s fitting, albeit increasingly rare, for a roots festival to stick to its roots.

The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, now in its 34th year, is the longest-running writer’s festival in the country.

Canada’s second largest ski area comes alive in the summertime, trading in the snow-white, powdery slopes, for lush green meadows and blankets of flowers that cover the alpine in a quilt of colour.

Nanaimo’s Feastival is a two-day celebration that celebrates both tasty ends of food spectrum - savoury and sweet.

If you are a bike enthusiast like me, but perhaps a bit of a fair-weather biker (also like me), then biking the Kettle Valley Railway trail is something you need to put on your bucket list.

After getting tossed out of a bathtub on the waters off Nanaimo's Departure Bay, all Jamie Garcia could say, with a giant smile splashed across his face, was, “Does that thing ever rip!”