Renfrew-Collingwood Community News

News stories from the Renfrew-Collingwood community in East Vancouver

Author Archives: Renfrew-Collingwood Community News


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Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival seeks local artists, musicians and performers

by Clea Moray

The Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival returns this fall, and Still Moon Arts Society is inviting local artists, musicians, performers, and interdisciplinary creators to bring their talents to this vibrant, much-loved celebration.

Each year, the festival draws more than 5,000 attendees to honour the harvest moon, Renfrew-Collingwood’s rich and diverse culture, and the beauty of the natural world. The event features art installations, live music, dance, spoken word, lantern displays, community workshops, and more.

Dani Zhang performs at 2024 Moon Festival. Photo by Chaotic Images.

The 2025 theme: Wetlands

Bog, quagmire, marsh, slough, swamp—whatever you call them, wetlands are incredible ecosystems teeming with life. They’re nurseries for fish, havens for birds, and homes to beavers and countless other creatures.

Beyond their biodiversity, wetlands play a critical role in climate resilience. Acting like natural sponges, they absorb water during the rainy season and release it slowly during dry months, creating stable flows that benefit fish and ecosystems alike. Wetlands reduce drought and flooding, purify water, and store carbon—sometimes even more effectively than forests.

Just downstream from Renfrew Ravine, Still Creek once spread into rich wetlands before being
confined behind big box stores.

Now, as the area around Renfrew and Rupert SkyTrain stations densifies and weather extremes intensify, it’s the perfect moment to reimagine our urban wetlands.

This year’s festival theme invites us all to reflect on and celebrate wetlands—through art, music,
dance, and spoken word.

Opportunities to get involved

‘Droning Sun by Kick Off The Truck Collective at 2024 Moon Festival. Photo by Pandora Yeung.

Still Moon Arts is accepting proposals for both major and minor festival events, including the Harvest Fair and Streamside Lanterns.

The Harvest Fair at Slocan Park is a family-friendly daytime event featuring lantern-making, crafts, costumes, and performances by local talent.

Streamside Lanterns is an enchanting nighttime experience at Renfrew Community Park, showcasing illuminated art, live music, and performances set amidst the trees and the gentle flow of Still Creek. Artists working in lanterns, electronic art, eco-art, land art, movement, sound, and other light-sensitive mediums are encouraged to apply.

This year, Still Moon Arts also welcomes proposals from artists interested in leading community workshops in lantern-making, eco-arts, or other cultural and creative activities.

Key info:

  • Application Deadline: Thursday, May 22, 2025, at 11:59 PM
  • Festival Dates: September 7 – October 4, 2025
  • Artist Fees: All selected applicants will be paid
  • For full details and to apply, visit: StillMoonArts.ca
  • Questions? Reach out to info@stillmoonarts.ca for application support


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May 2025 issue of the RCC News is here

Download the issue here.

In this issue:

  • Art feature: Noticed in Renfrew-Collingwood… fence traffic
  • A community, a city, a planet mourns
  • August 9th. proclaimed as Lt. Robert Hampton Gray Day
  • Collingwood Corner: Constantly changing houses on Price Street
  • Finding Relief from Headaches and Migraines with Acupuncture
  • Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival Seeks Local Artists, Musicians, and Performers
  • Hello to Yellow: Story, art and photos by Penny Lim
  • Read on: Victoria and Victoria Day
  • Collingwood Neighbourhood House Highlights: Celebrating National Volunteer Week

The deadline to submit for our June issue is May 10, 2025. Email rccnews-editorial@cnh.bc.ca.


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Collingwood Corner: Pink blossom time; one hundred years of beauty!

By Lorette Houben

Enchanting pink blossom season is here, with glimpses of exquisite flowers being spotted on the streets and avenues of Collingwood in early spring. Quite a few of the main boulevards, such as E 22nd Avenue and Rupert, have older trees with masses of pink blooms in April, while other streets have lighter blossoms earlier in March. Some of the trees are plum, and some are cherry. These are ornamental trees, meaning the blossoms are pleasing to look at, but won’t produce fruit.

“In 1925, the mayors of Kobe and Yokohama presented the Vancouver Park Board with five hundred trees of the Ojochin variety for planting at the cenotaph in Stanley Park, in honour of Japanese Canadian veterans of WWI.” (Source: vcbf.ca)

Closeup of Akebono Cherry blossoms on Austrey Ave in 2011. Photo by Loretta Houben

Austrey Avenue, located behind St. Mary’s Church at Joyce and Euclid, has two rows of magnificent cherry trees in the 3300 block. This is one of the most stunning sights to see in Vancouver in spring! I’d always wondered when these trees were planted, and what variety they were. According to a Holmes report-planting record, which I acquired a few years ago, the year was 1969. The information is on page 25 and gives the name of the gorgeous trees, Akebono Cherry. The report lists trees planted on boulevards in Vancouver from 1926 to 1927 and gives a summary of all types of trees; birch, chestnut, elm, etcetera for a total of 1,710 trees.

The next section in the report is from 1969 onwards. The report is typed in pdf format. There were eighteen Akebono Cherry trees on Austrey Avenue in total. As of 2025, eighteen trees remain but one has been replaced recently. Also in 1969, twenty-two Cherry Whitcombie trees were planted in the 3300 block of Clive Avenue, just one block to the North from Austrey, but they are all gone as of 2025. Make sure you get out and enjoy the beauty of the pink trees, which Vancouver has enjoyed for 100 years! (Source: vcbf.ca)