During the Celebration of Light festival, Bard on the Beach hosts special nights of entertainment that include a show, barbecue and a viewing of the fireworks.
In 2024 the fireworks and barbecue nights take place on the evenings of July 20th, 24th and 27th.
For tickets and full details, see the Bard on the Beach website.
Vancouver’s Bard-B-Q and 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 2024 the productions Twelfth Night, Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors and Measure for Measure are staged from June 11th to September 21st.
Also during the summer is the Honda 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.
If you want to watch the fireworks show but don’t want to do it at crowded English Bay Beach, one option is to attend a Bard-B-Q at the Bard on the Beach site in Vanier Park. Each night that there are 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 barbecue dinner and exclusive viewing of the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks.
2024 dates for the fireworks and the Bard-B-Q Fireworks Nights are July 20th, 24th and 27th.
Admission Rates
To attend the Bard-B-Q event you need to buy a ticket to that evening’s performance. The 2024 mainstage productions are Twelfth Night and Hamlet and those play on each of the fireworks nights this year. Also showing are The Comedy of Errors and Measure for Measure on the Howard Family Stage.
Tickets that include the Bard-B-Q start at around $120, so more expensive than normal tickets (but it includes so much more)!
To give an idea on ticket costs, Bard Fireworks Nights in 2023 cost $120, $145, $160 or $180. Pricing depends on where you sit for the show. 2024’s ticket prices are likely to be comparable.
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 are tremendously popular!
For tickets and full details, see the Bard on the Beach website.
Schedule
The 2024 Bard-B-Q Fireworks Nights are on the Saturday, Wednesday and Saturday of July 20th, 24th and 27th. On each of those days the performances begin at 5:00 pm and end at around 7:45 pm. That’s when dinner starts.
In 2023, the menu featured crispy fried bone-in chicken with mashed potato salad and cornbread dinner buns. For dessert there were banana poppyseed squares, sweet & salty chocolate caramel bars, fudge brownies and triple berry desserts. For vegetarians and vegans, there was a chickpea & mushroom stuffed pepper option.
During dinner and dessert last year, there was live entertainment in the Bard village headlined by the Tsatsu Stalqayu (Coastal Wolf Pack) performance group. They are a large family of Coast Salish artists who perform across the province.
The fireworks show typically starts at 10:00 pm where they are watched from a designated outdoor viewing area. Bard Village is only about a kilometre away from English Bay Beach with a view directly over the water to where the fireworks take off from. The view of the fireworks from Vanier Park is exceptional!
Other Information
For tickets and full details about the event, see the Bard on the Beach website.
Click Bard on the Beach for more information about the Shakespeare festival. To learn more about the fireworks show itself check out our articles on the Celebration of Light.
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