Vancouver on the Cheap: The Parade of Lost Souls Workshops

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled "cheap" and the other labeled "awesome", the middle point where they cross over could be labeled "Vancouver on the Cheap".

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If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled "cheap" and the other labeled "awesome", the middle point where they cross over could be labeled "Vancouver on the Cheap". In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome.

While I confess that I've never attended The Parade of Lost Souls/Secret Souls Walk, I have long been an admirer of the Public Dreams Society that puts these two sister events on. The Public Dreams Society is a highly theatrical and innovative group that creates immersive creative experiences all over Vancouver. From what I understand, they spend a lot of their time being what I like to call hired guns of awesomeness, bringing their surreal artistic flair to parties and events all over town. Every year, however, they host The Parade of Lost Souls and the Secret Souls Walk, an ethereally creepy and artistic Halloween festival.

Submitted photo.

There are a few items here that deserve a shout-out of cheapness. The first is the Secret Souls Walk. With a recommended entry donation of $5, the Secret Souls Walk is a sort of immersive parade/festival that is certainly "on the cheap". Full of stilt-walkers, dancers, paper lanterns, masks, puppets, and other characters, you can come and observe the festivities or create a character of your own and join in.

Speaking of creating your own character, the other cheap thing that the Public Dreams folk provide to us is a series of workshops, also available by donation. You can learn the Thriller dance (and perform it at the parade), create a vulture puppet or a character all your own, explore stilt walking, or learn how to join in an improvised choral group. This is an amazing chance to tap into your creepy creative juices before one of the most fun holidays of the year as well as get more involved in the Secret Souls Walk, if you'd like.

Word to the wise: the third aspect to the Parade is the Parade of Lost Souls Dance Party. While it sounds like a blast, it's certainly not cheap. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door. Now, I'm not knocking their choice here, they are offering a lot of excellent options at the low price of "by donation", and these events aren't cheap to produce. I suspect the dance party is a bit of a fundraiser for them to pay the whole thing off, so if cash isn't a stumbling block for you, consider going. It will be an awesome way to start the week of Halloween!