Late evening sunsets and music concerts are two delights of a Vancouver summer. This summer we have had a plethora of the first and our first taste of the second. Summer concerts abound on the North Shore from June to August covering everything from salsa to the swing.
We spent Friday night with the Fab Four in Edgemont Village. Here a section of the street is cordoned off, a truck bed is the stage, the street is the dance floor and haphazard garden chairs complete the outdoor theatre. Patrons spill out of Delany's coffee shop on to the sidewalk adding a Parisian café feel to the scene. The trees cast the street in welcome shade - a cool respite from the heat baking the west-facing windows of our apartment.
We set up our garden chairs with a reasonable view of the four, replete in black suits and ties, white shirts and appropriate wigs to complete the beatle-look. The street is busy with families dancing, talking and enjoying the start of the weekend. Green and white balloons dot the festivities and occasionally one escapes the clutches of a child to soar up and up into the blue sky.
This is summer north of Vancouver!
There's no need to talk, or plan or explain - just sit back and relax. Enjoy the children dancing, the parents joining in the fun, the 60 year-olds who are transported to their youth and their feckless days when Lucy was not the only one in the sky with diamonds. As a pre-schooler I sang and danced to the 7 single 'Yellow Submarine'. It was right up there with Winnie the Pooh and The Teddy Bear's Picnic. "If you go down in the woods today you're in for a big surprise ... we all live in a yellow submarine, yellow submarine ... twinkle, twinkle little star ..."
The show ends after Sgt. Pepper, the crowd leaves, we sit talking with friends until we are almost the only ones left in the street with the clean-up crew. The sun is not yet gone; the stars have yet to come out. We pack up our chairs to catch the sunset from home over a cold beer. The weekend can only get better - and it does!
