From our calendar to yours comes this carefully considered agenda of cool things we are doing, wishing we could do, or conspiring to do in Vancouver from March 28 to April 3, 2018. Please note that you can now get the Scout List – with a few extra pieces of intel included – sent to your inbox every Thursday. Sign up for your subscription in the sidebar.

#SAVETHERIO | Kick off the long weekend right and help raise funds to keep the beloved Rio Theatre going by heading to Beaumont Studios this Thursday. The False Creek art gallery, along with non-profit The Vancouver Art House Society, are throwing an art raffle and party as part of Vancouver’s citywide #SaveTheRio campaign. There will be two floors filled with loads of local art up for bidding from 7-9pm; stick around to get down with your fellow film- and culture-lovers along with a line-up of local DJs.  Find out more.

SCIENCE | Head out to UBC and hit the Beaty Biodiversity Museum for a special evening lecture about dinosaurs and their travel routes with experts from the Peace Region Palaeontology Research Centre. From the museum: “Learn about the work being done at the Six Peaks Track Site near Hudson’s Hope, BC, the long history of dinosaur track work in our province, the biodiversity of dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous period (115 million years ago), as well as some scientific surprises!” Picking up a little extra knowledge about dinosaurs on a Thursday night is only ever going to work to your advantage! Find out more.

GIG | Relieve some of that mid-week stress and move your body by checking out Beth Ditto at The Imperial this Wednesday night. Formerly the front woman of now defunct rock band The Gossip, Ditto is on tour for her first solo album, Fake Sugar. Take my word that, regardless of who’s behind her on the stage, this woman has one unbelievably killer voice, a hell of a presence and surplus soul. You won’t be able to resist flailing and shaking along. Find out more.

ART SHOW | Local artist  Marena Skinner‘s “I’m a Mess” Solo Art Show is taking over Avant-Garden’s Chinatown space for one night only this Thursday evening. Skinner’s illustrative style is colourful, crude and humorous with subject matter that often focuses on mental health. According to the Facebook event page description, the artist is attempting to make the space “as Marena as possible, an experience,” which we expect means kind of dark, definitely witty, a bit rock’n’roll and possibly a little messy. Find out more.

EASTER BEERS | If you’re 19+ then save the stress of the chocolate egg hunt for the kids because you don’t have to hunt high and low for beer this Easter long weekend. This Sunday simply head downtown to Central City where 20 BC breweries are each supplying a special festive cask beer for their ‘Easter Cask Day’ event. The $30 ticket price includes six beer tokens and one food token, with additional tokens available for $1.50-3. Find out more.

MOVIE | Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs just hit theatres and if a long weekend isn’t a perfect time to block off an afternoon for a matinee, really – when is? “When, by executive decree, all the canine pets of Megasaki City are exiled to a vast garbage-dump called Trash Island, 12-year-old Atari sets off alone in a miniature Junior-Turbo Prop and flies across the river in search of his bodyguard-dog, Spots. There, with the assistance of a pack of newly-found mongrel friends, he begins an epic journey that will decide the fate and future of the entire Prefecture.” International Village is our choice of theatres for this one – perfectly situated for brunch at Bestie beforehand or a dinner at Chambar afterward. Find out more.

MOONSHINE | If clouds cooperate, you’ll be able to glimpse the Blue Moon in the sky on Saturday, March 31. Two full moons in one month is a relatively rare occurrence, take some time out to appreciate it. Technically a different moon altogether, but be flexible with your folklore and head in to the Keefer Bar to mark the occasion with a Blood Moon (Botanist Gin, lemon, blood orange, Szechuan Peppercorn, celery bitters and egg white). Free, except for the cocktail part.

POPUP | Looking for a somewhere new to stuff your face this weekend? There’s a weekly pop-up starting at Cultivate Tea on Main Street that we think you should know about. Bread whisperer and pastry magician Annabelle Choi and her partner Joey Ridos have started a new gig called Companion Bread and they’ll be taking over Cultivate every Sunday to offer Vancouverites the chance to devour delicious items like savoury sprouted grain flour flaky puffed tart ($5.50); blood orange tea cakes ($4.75); dark chocolate pear cake ($5.25); whole grain croissant buns ($5.25) and country sourdough ($9/loaf). But wait, the fun doesn’t stop there! Johnny Can’t Surf will also be in the tiny Mount Pleasant tea shop serving up coffee and warm stroopwafels. So much good! No joke: there will be a sell-out factor to consider, so think about heading in early (or pre-order here) to avoid disappointment. Find out more.

EAT LOCAL | Take a trip to the Winter Farmers Market this weekend to fill up on spring goodies like stinging nettles, chives and lovely eggs from happy chickens. Score hearty root vegetables, fresh bread, dried fruits and other locally-grown goodies while you’re at it.

RELAX, HAVE A DRINK | This is a long weekend, so kick back and take a hike, plan brunch with family or friends, clean the garage – whatever it is that you’ve been meaning to get to but couldn’t manage to fit in to the skimpy two day weekends of yore. It’s also a fine time to enjoy a cocktail with pals. Looking for somewhere to go?  We’ve got a fine list of some of Vancouver’s better options here.