Rugby sevens and several other events to check out in Vancouver this weekend

Pyrotechnics go off as Canada and Ireland players run onto the field before an HSBC Canada Sevens women's rugby match, in Vancouver, B.C., Sunday, March 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

The last weekend of February is the first weekend of several ongoing events in Vancouver. Here are five things to check out over the next few days.

Vancouver Sevens

The annual Vancouver Sevens rugby tournament kicked off Friday at BC Place and will run all weekend, with men's and women's tournament champions crowned in gold-medal matches on Sunday afternoon.

Twenty-four teams from 12 countries will compete in 64 rugby sevens matches over the course of the weekend, cheered on by creatively costumed fans.

While general-admission tickets for Saturday are sold out, reserved seating tickets and multi-day passes were still available on the Vancouver Sevens website as of Friday afternoon.

VMF Winter Arts Festival

Also at BC Place – and various other locations around downtown – this weekend is "Blanketing The City: Lighting The Way," a free outdoor installation that is part of the VMF Winter Arts Festival.

VMF – the Vancouver Mural Festival – has collaborated with xʷməθkʷəy̓əm weaver and designer Debra Sparrow on her ongoing public art series.

"This project reclaims the Vancouver skyline with weaving patterns that have been shared and passed down for thousands of years by the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people," the festival website explains.

The installations will be visible nightly until 11 p.m. from Friday through Feb. 27. More information and the locations of the seven displays can be found online. 

Mountain film festival begins

Friday is also the opening night of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival, a weeklong celebration of filmmaking and the outdoors.

More than 70 "mountain and adventure stories" will be featured in this year's event, which also includes "special guest speakers, filmmaker intros and expert-led workshops on photography, storytelling and mountain safety skills," according to organizers.

The event continues through March 3 at theatres around the city and online. More information can be found on the VIMFF website. 

Maker supply market

More than 40 local artisans will be on hand at the Heritage Hall on Main Street from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday for the second edition of Vancouver Etsy Co.'s Maker Supply Market.

The event is designed as an opportunity for vendors to sell "extra making supplies, samples, not-perfect but still good items, displays, clearance items, craft materials, seasonal and discontinued items and more," according to organizers.

Admission to the market is free, but can be reserved in advance online, and all items for sale will be priced at $50 or less.

An Indigenous Misadventure

Another event getting underway this weekend is a reimagining of Molière’s most popular play, Tartuffe, at the Granville Island Stage.

"Father Tartuffe: An Indigenous Misadventure" sets the story in the wake of Expo 67 and the 100th anniversary of Canadian confederation.

"Orin and his family are living well on the Rez," reads the synopsis on the play's website.

"But when the gullible patriarch welcomes the con artist Father Tartuffe into their home, his relatives must rally together to save themselves from the imposter’s conniving ways. Can they snap Orin out of his delusions and expose Tartuffe’s less-than-holy intentions?"

Co-produced by the Arts Club Theatre Company and Touchstone Theatre, the play opened Thursday and will run through March 24.