See what tourists see 鈥� for only $16 鈥� at the Be a Local Tourist 2020 promotion at 70 local attractions and businesses over the next five days.
Receive $700 in savings in discounted fun (including 300 freebies) from deals and experiences offered by local gardens, restaurants, boutique ice cream shops and tours.
This once-a-year event is an opportunity for locals and visitors alike to check out popular tourist attractions that make Victoria a world-renowned travel destination.
Up to 7,000 people typically turn up, rain or shine, every year to take advantage of deals, including a free yoga class at Fernwood Yoga Den (Saturday and Sunday only), free admission to Butchart Gardens (Saturday and Sunday only), a 20 per cent discount on a limousine or other vehicle (Thursday, Sunday and Monday), 25 per cent on Off The Eaten Track, a sinful chocaholic indulgence, or enjoy a 45-minute horse-drawn carriage ride by Tally-Ho Carriage Tours for $117 (Saturday and Sunday only).
Advance booking is required for some deals.
Participants get a wristband that acts as an all-access pass during the event.
Not sure what to see? The event鈥檚 web page features three-day guides: Best Experience for Newbies; Explore the Downtown Core and The Ultimate Family Staycation in Victoria.
The Be A Local Tourist promotion was formerly known as Be A Tourist in Your Own Hometown and is a production of Attractions Victoria.
One dollar from each pass sold is donated to the Victoria Hospitals Foundation.
The wristbands are $16 and are available online or in person at the Destination Greater Victoria Visitor Centre, 812 Wharf St., and all eight Save-on-Foods locations in Greater Victoria.
The event runs today to March 2. For details, a list of participants or to buy a wristband, go to .
Musicians play for Lent
Bring a lunch and enjoy a complimentary cup of hot coffee or tea while you listen to musicians of all ages at the Noon Concerts for Lent series at St. Mary鈥檚, Oak Bay, every Wednesday, March 4 to April 1.
Starting on Ash Wednesday, Lent is a 40-day period of reflection and preparation that ends with celebrations at Easter.
Proceeds from the noon-hour concerts will be donated to the Victoria Hospice Bereavement Fund.
Concerts in the series include:
March 4: Curt Bergen, organ, and Pamela Whiston, piano
March 11: Wind students from the University of Victoria
March 18: Denis Donnelly and Lanny Pollet, guitar, Irish harp and flute
March 25: Filozofia, string quartet
April 1: Stabat Mater (Pergolesi): Marnie Setka Mooney, soprano; Sara Partridge, mezzo-soprano; Children鈥檚 Choir and The Confession Stone (Fleming) with Kim Greenwood, mezzo-soprano, and Jim Hill, accompanist.
Admission is by donation. The concerts run 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. every Wednesday until April 1 at St. Mary鈥檚, Oak Bay, 1701 Elgin Rd. For more information, go to .
Walk takes tour through raccoon鈥檚 day
Take a walk on a raccoon trail to live a day in the life of the North American raccoon (Procyon lotor) at Rascally Raccoons, an all-ages program Saturday at East Sooke Regional Park.
Most people are familiar with this medium-sized mammal, which is native to North America. Some admire it for its intelligence and character, but others 鈥� such as gardeners, home owners and farmers 鈥� find less to like because of the problems they cause.
Raccoons are opportunistic omnivores and highly adaptable in their quest for food. They can often open containers that foil most other animals.
Join a CRD Regional Parks
naturalist on a guided walk and talk to better understand these
little rascals, which can be found in a wide variety of habitats, including forests, marshes, farmland and cities.
Their quest for a meal makes them valuable for cleaning up unwanted food from other animals in the wild, but gets them into trouble when they do so in backyards.
Feeding raccoons decreases their fear of humans, potentially making them more aggressive toward food or injured pets. It is also illegal to keep raccoons as pets in sa国际传媒
The all-ages guided walk is free to join. It runs 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday from the kiosk in the Aylard Farm parking lot, off Beecher Bay Road at East Sooke Regional Park.
Try to arrive 10 minutes before the start of the program. Please leave pets at home. For more information, go to .
Festival features school bands
Listen to the talents of elementary, middle, junior and senior secondary school bands from across sa国际传媒 and the United States at BandFest 2020, today and tomorrow at the University of Victoria.
This is the 36th year of the non-competitive concert band festival, which is hosted by the University of Victoria School of Music.
The music student ensembles will perform on stage and receive an adjudication/workshop from one of the finest wind band conductors/adjudicators in sa国际传媒 and the US.
Performances today include:
Band 10 students will perform from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. (Warm-up between 7:45 and 8:25)
Band 9 students will perform 10:10 to 10:55 a.m. (Warm-up between 9:25 and 10:05)
Band 11/12 students will perform 11:50 to 12:35 a.m. (Warm-up between 11:05 and 11:45)
The event is free to the public. The festival runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and tomorrow and takes place in the University Centre Farquhar Auditorium at the University of Victoria.
For more information, go to .
Composer feeling groovy
Canadian composer Nicole Liz茅e pays homage to San Francisco as the hub of the counterculture in the tumultuous 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s in Kool-Aid Acid Test #17: Blotterberry Bursst, Sunday at the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall.
The performance is part of the Victoria-based Aventa Ensemble鈥檚 2019/2020 season.
Liz茅e takes the audience on a trip back to a groovier time, with a multimedia extravaganza that combines instrumental music, film, video and audio samples.
You will see and hear references to such artists as Jefferson Airplane, We Five, Wes Wilson and Stanley Mouse along with the films Hallucination Generation, The Graduate, Vertigo and Psych-Outand.
The Aventa Ensemble includes Quebec baritone Vincent Ranallo and Bill Linwood, conductor.
The concert also features Jordan Nobles with Einstein鈥檚 Dreams 鈥� May 14, 1905 (Canadian premi猫re), Marcus Goddard with Imaginary Colour (Canadian premi猫re) and Gabriel Dharmoo with Wanmansho.
Tickets are $20 and are available at the door. The pre-concert talk starts at 7:15, with the concert starting at
8 p.m. Sunday at the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, MacLaurin Building at the University of Victoria. For more information, go to aventa.ca.
Talk examines region鈥檚 post war upheaval
Discover the near chaos in Victoria and Esquimalt in the months after victory over Japan in the Second World War at Anything But Peaceful: Victoria in the Aftermath of V-J Day, tonight at the James Bay New Horizons.
Hosted by the Victoria Historical Society, the presentation features Prof. David Zimmerman, professor of history at the University of Victoria.
Zimmerman, who has written several books and more than 20 articles on various aspects of naval and military history, talks about a tumultuous time on sa国际传媒鈥檚 West Coast.
With the end of the war, the Canadian Navy quickly demobilized, reducing its personnel from 100,000 to just 7,500 in just months.
Both Victoria and Esquimalt were flooded with restless young Canadian sailors as they waited to be demobilized. Near chaos prevailed.
The history presentation is $5 for guests and is free to members.
Doors open at 7:15 p.m. for refreshments and conversation. A short business meeting at 7:45 p.m. will be followed by the guest speaker, tonight at the James Bay New Horizons, 234 Menzies St. For more information, go to .