Week in Preview: Our critics' picks for your next seven days in culture
PERFORMANCE - Victoria Symphony Splash - It’s the most natural of symphonic/pyrotechnic pairings – fireworks and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture – but how often do you get to experience them together, live? It happens on Vancouver Island every summer with the Victoria Symphony Splash, billed as the largest annual outdoor symphony event in Canada (up to 40,000 people are expected). For the 25th annual event, Tania Miller conducts the symphony from a floating stage in the Inner Harbour in a program that will include the William Tell Overture, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and music from Video Games Live. It wraps at 9:45 p.m. with the traditional 1812 Overture, performed with fireworks, bells and cannons. (Aug. 3; activities start at 1 p.m.; the symphony begins at 7:30 p.m.). – Marsha LedermanVictor Chong
FILM - Fact or Fiction: The Life and Times of a Ping Pong Hustler - He was the Bobby Riggs of the table-tennis world, which is to say he was a rascal, a raconteur and a flamboyant ace player. Marty Reisman is studied in a documentary which will be screened for press and friends next week at parties in New York, Los Angeles and at Toronto’s Spin Galactic Ping-Pong social club. The film (available through online retailers) uses archival film and images and talking-head interviews to chronicle the final three years of Reisman’s life. As indicated by the title, when it came to his game and his own story, the man had spin. – Brad Wheeler
MUSIC - Squamish Valley Music Festival - In the battle of the Sea to Sky Highway music festivals this summer, the Squamish Valley Music Festival has a geographical advantage over July’s Pemberton Music Festival, with a location much closer to Vancouver. The Squamish fest also offers a genre-defying monster lineup, with headliners Eminem, Bruno Mars and Arcade Fire. Other artists on the three-day bill include: Arctic Monkeys, Broken Bells, Foster the People, Lykke Li, the Head and the Heart, Chvrches, Tokyo Police Club, Sam Roberts Band and Serena Ryder. This year’s event features four stages, including an EDM arena. Bummer note: Music fans will have to choose between Squamish and Lady Gaga, who takes the stage in Vancouver on Aug. 9. (Aug. 8-10) – M.L.
TELEVISION - Bachelor in Paradise - Who says there are no second chances in reality TV? Booked for a six-week run, this summer oddity drops rejected contestants from The Bachelor and The Bachelorette into a posh Mexican resort for an encore shot at true romance. There’s an uneven number of singles (12 women, 13 men) and the unlucky soul who isn’t paired with someone at the end of the first episode will be sent home. Participants include Ben Scott, who unsuccessfully used his young son to gain affection on The Bachelorette, and Bachelor castoff Michelle Kujawa – still trying to show the world she’s not the “crazy girl.” (ABC, CITY-TV, 8 p.m., Aug. 4) – Andrew Ryan
MUSIC - Edmonton Folk Music Festival - “I feel like it’s raining all over the world.” Music festivals across Canada were hit hard by weather a week ago, but spirits were hardly washed away. This weekend sees major events in Montreal (Osheaga) and Toronto (Drake’s OVO), and next weekend brings another edition of the folk-music fandango at Edmonton’s Gallagher Park. Headliners include Blue Rodeo, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Basia Bulat and veteran country-soul songster Tony Joe White, who wrote such hits as Polk Salad Annie and Rainy Night in Georgia. Bring an umbrella, or not – a folk festival is its own refuge. (Aug. 7-10) – B.W.