Friday night’s W2 Woodwards Moving Party brought out a late-night crowd to both bid farewell to W2 Storyeum’s space and to celebrate the past year of extensive and eclectic programming accessible to all. By midnight, the queue to get in had grown in size to reach out the front doors.
This space has seen over 60,000 people from Vancouver and beyond come together to share an amazing wealth of music, culture, and socially-minded events. W2 Storyeum is moving to the new W2 Media Café and Woodwards Atrium (across the street), to continue its legacy as a creative commons for the city.
[Rapper Ostwelve]
Preceding the moving party was the Mayworks Festival Launch featuring performances by hip-hop artist Ostwelve, punk rockers Legally Blind and several DJs spread out around the large Storyeum space.
Speaking of space, the 31,000 square foot venue had a main stage with three rooms to accommodate the over 1,500 people that came by to party.
The Sound Room had DVS1, TJ Hooker, Miss Myte and Caleb Fox. The Cedar Room featured J.F. Killah, Johnny Dubz, Michael Red, Librarian (Bass Coast Project) and Lomax. A third East Wing housed a collection of visual and multi-media artists including Dr. Spiny, Matty Harris, Jamie Bizness, Shawna McLellan, Sydney Koke, Sammy Chien, Peter Hagge and others.
The event was presented by Cariboo Brewing and sources tell me that the party continued deep into the night. I look forward to checking out the new spaces, set to open in mid-May. This lively event has hopefully finally buried Vancouver’s reputation as a “no fun city”. And if it has, then W2 has succeeded in nailing one of its major objectives!
W2 is a people-powered organization run mostly by volunteers who are passionate about positive change in our community. It graciously accepts contributions of both time and/or money.
W2 Media Café and Woodwards Atrium will soon be open on West Cordova Street (near Abbott), inside the Woodwards heritage building complex.
The rest of the party photos can be found on my Flickr photo set.
