During the Celebration of Light festival, Bard on the Beach hosts special nights of entertainment that include a show, dessert and a viewing of the fireworks.
Last year’s fireworks events took place on the evenings of July 19th and 26th. Note: The Celebration of Light fireworks festival has been cancelled indefinitely, including for 2026.
Visit bardonthebeach.org for full details about the Shakespearean festival and its various special events, including Bard Fireworks Nights.
This article includes the following information about Bard Fireworks Nights:
Admission Rates | Bard Fireworks Schedule | Other Information
Vancouver’s Bard Fireworks Nights
The Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival is one of the premier summertime events in Vancouver. It takes place from June until September each year and includes three or four shows that play at various times.
In 2025 the productions were Much Ado About Nothing, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again] and The Dark Lady. They were staged from June 10th to September 20th. 2026 details are to be confirmed. In 2026 the productions are The Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, Goblin: Oedipus and Antigone.
Also during the summer is the Celebration of Light which is a massive fireworks festival that happens over English Bay. Hundreds of thousands of people go each night to watch the fireworks explode high in the sky in professional displays. As stated earlier, this festival has been cancelled indefinitely.
Should the fireworks return, if you want to watch the show but don’t want to do it at crowded English Bay Beach, one option is to attend a Bard Fireworks Night in Vanier Park. When it hopefully returns in the future, on two of the three nights of fireworks, Bard on the Beach hosts a special event where you can buy a ticket not just for the evening’s play, but also for a dessert buffet and exclusive viewing of the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks. There are also picnic bundles available at an additional cost.
Another series of special events at Bard on the Beach is Talkback Tuesdays which features question and answer sessions with Bard on the Beach cast members on select Tuesdays. There are also Wine Wednesdays for adults who can enjoy wine tastings and savoury bites before the shows.
2025 dates for the fireworks and the Bard Fireworks Nights were July 19th and 26th.
See the Bard on the Beach website for tickets and full details.
Admission Rates
To attend the Bard Fireworks Night event, should it happen, you need to buy a ticket to one of that evening’s performances. The 2025 BMO Main Stage production Much Ado About Nothing and the Douglas Campbell Theatre production The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again] were those that played on each of the two fireworks nights last year.
Regular tickets last year ranged from about $100 to $165, depending on your age and where you sat. Tickets included the dessert buffet and fireworks. Family picnics for four people cost an additional $150. There were also individual picnic options for about $36 and $48 per person.
Bard on the Beach shows are popular on their own, so make sure to not wait too long to buy tickets if you want to go to a special event night. Fireworks Nights at Bard were tremendously popular!
Bard Fireworks Schedule
The 2025 Bard Fireworks Nights were on the Saturdays of July 19th and 26th. On each of those days the performances began at 6:00 pm.
Last year’s Celebration of Light participants were Midnight Sun (from Yukon), Royal Pyrotechnie (from Quebec) and Fireworks FX (from Nova Scotia). For the first time ever, all three contestants were Canadian (whereas in past years they have been from three countries). They competed on July 19th, 23rd and 26th respectively (so Royal Pyrotechnie wasn’t be part of the Bard event).
Last year’s dessert buffet menu featured both a cookie sandwich bar and a donut station. Picnic bundles, on the other hand, came with multi-course meals.
The fireworks shows started at about 10:15 pm and were watched from a designated outdoor viewing area. There was also a drone show each night at 10:00 pm. Bard Village is only about a kilometre away from English Bay Beach with a view directly over the water to where the fireworks blasted off from. The view of the fireworks from Vanier Park was exceptional.
See the Bard on the Beach website for tickets and full details.
Other Information
See the Bard on the Beach website for tickets and full details about this event.
Click Bard on the Beach for more information about this Shakespearean festival. Check out our articles on the Celebration of Light to learn more about the fireworks show itself.
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