Burnaby Blooms – Eco sculptures

Burnaby Blooms – Eco sculptures

If you have a chance this week, go and visit the Burnaby Blooms Festival in Deer Lake Park near Vancouver, BC. We visited a couple of weeks ago and LOVED the eco sculptures that were curated by the fabulous local artist Nickie Lewis from The Wizards Makery. I fell in love with Nickie’s fabulous Mythical creatures in Robert Burnaby Park last year, so I was excited to see what she’d make this time.

Burnaby Blooms Festival aims to support the long-term sustainability and the ecological health of Burnaby, but they do so in a fun, creative way. It’s a great day out.

In addition to the fabulous eco sculptures, there are quite a few outdoor events that you can sign up for (like ikebana or flower-related activities, canoeing classes, painting etc.) As well as a bunch of talks and tours. You can see the full list (and sign up) here.

Deer Lake Park

Deer Lake Park is a beautiful park in the center of Burnaby. We arrived at the wrong side of the park, so walked around the lake to reach the Burnaby Blooms Festival. If you’d prefer to go straight there, head for the Deer Lake Park Festival Lawn to the North of the lake.

Deer Lake Views

We walked around the lake just as the family canoe lessons were in full swing. It looked like everyone was having a blast messing about on the water. You can rent canoes (or kayaks, rowboats or pedal boats.) We may have to go back and try that on a quieter day.

The views of Deer Lake are gorgeous.

Burnaby Blooms Festival

If you can visit on Saturday 28th May, the festival will be in full swing. There are food stands and stalls with information as well as family friendly activities. We didn’t spend long looking at these as we wanted to see the artworks.

Fusion Icy

I was tempted into buying a shaved ice with mango (they have a strawberry option too.) It was perfect for a hot day and naturally sweet.

Insect sculptures made of flowers

The first sculptures you are likely to see are the insects made of flowers, just outside the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. There was a fabulous wasp…

As well as a giant spider.

Plus a caterpillar and a butterfly. Are they not spectacular!?

Tanya Bub’s

Next we headed away from the festival lawn and into the woods for more eco sculptures. I admired the gorgeous work of Tanya Bub, made of driftwood. The various animals have such haunting stares.

My favourites were the lions and the dogs.

Wizard Makery sculptures

Last but not least we finally found Nickie’s mythical creatures. There was a sprite, a wizard and even pegasus hiking in the woods.

The star of the show was Aster, the giant dragon. Emerald the Dragon was my favourite sculpture in 2021, so it was fun to see another one.

Nickie creates her fantasy creatures from green waste donated by the community and for this event, from the city’s green waste. She uses twine to tie each piece together; So if left, they would slowly decompose and fade back into the forest.

It is amazing to see what artwork can be created with green waste and buckets of talent!

Once we finished visiting the sculptures, we walked around the park and back to the skytrain. Deer Lake Park is a really lovely part of Burnaby to explore normally, but if you can visit during the Burnaby Blooms Festival do! It is a great family day out.

My post is a bit late (as the eco sculptures will only be there until the end of May 2022…) But if you can visit, I really hope you’ll love it as much as we did.

46 thoughts on “Burnaby Blooms – Eco sculptures

    1. Lol I may have hidden the rain well! It did rain on us for part of the walk, but we had brollies. You can never really count on the weather in Vancouver in the springtime. 😉

  1. Those insect sculptures look so cool! and the Deer Lake view is so cool! Fusion Icy reminds me Italian granita! must be so tasty!

    1. Oooh I don’t think I have had granita. Shaved ice is pretty popular in Japan too- but it is often served with syrup, rather than fruit as a sweeter. I loooove the fruit version. 🙂

  2. This looks like such a fun and unique place! And so beautiful! I could definitely use one of those mango ice treats on a hot summer day.

  3. What wonderful creations! I’ll have to keep this in mind for a future visit to Vancouver! Lived in Vancouver for 10 years and haven’t seen this yet. Thanks for sharing.:)

    1. I don’t think they’ll be there for long, but you can peek at the Wizards Makery (I left a link in the post) to see what the artist is up to when you visit. 😀

  4. These eco sculptures are so cool!! I love the insects made of flowers, but also the animals made of driftwood. It amazes me how talented some people are. I wish I lived close to Vancouver and could see them. Thans for sharing this awesome art.

    1. Thanks for reading Ildiko. I totally agree. The insects and amazing driftwood sculptures both brilliant!

  5. Wow what a cool post! I’ve never seen anything like this. Thank you for sharing your experience!

  6. We are heading back to BC in a few weeks. The Burnaby Blooms look like very cool eco sculptures to see. Sorry we will miss them when we get there. The caterpillar sculpture looked so well done. Great to see more of Tanya Bub’s driftwood. We saw several of her pieces when we went to the Malahat Skywalk.

    1. Oooh I didn’t realize you were coming back so soon! 😀 I had not heard of the Malahat Skywalk, but omg it looks gorgeous!! I need to spend more time on the island!!

  7. Wow, this artwork is so cool! That wasp is really impressive. Thanks for sharing, I wish I could visit before the end of May!

  8. The insects made of a flowers are so creative! But, I think I like the sculptures made of driftwood even more. What a cool event!

    1. Tanya Bub’s work was fantastic! I loved the driftwood sculptures!

      I am not actually sure who made the cool insects! I couldn’t find it written anywhere on the signs/ or online when I got home. They were great though.

  9. Wow these are so impressive! My favourites are definitely the bees. i like the fact they’re of bees and attract bees :). A very cool festival and beautiful setting too!

  10. Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this before. Very cool festival. I’m always impressed by how creative people can be – I never would’ve thought to do anything like this!

    1. I totally agree! I am rubbish at anything sculpture-like so I have so much respect for the artists.

  11. Wow! I would love to see the Burnaby Blooms festival! I have seen eco sculptures like that in Germany, but never here in Canada. Super cool!

    1. Thanks Marianne!

      Now you mention it, we saw a sculpture of the queen in the UK last week made out of flowers (it looked pretty awful though if I am honest!)

  12. Whoa, these are super cool! I especially love the horse and butterfly sculptures! And, I don’t blame you for getting one of those amazing looking mango icy treats. I would totally be in line with you!

    1. Lol yeeees! I was keen to go back see more and get a second icy last weekend…but covid-19 kept me housebound 🙁

  13. Loved these cool sculptures especially the dragon, although I think the main thing that caught my eyes was the mango shaved iced 👀

  14. This looks like my kind of day out – and gosh, that Shaved Ice has gotten me drooling!! 🤤

  15. This looks like my type of day out! And that shaved ice with mango has gotten me drooling!! 🤤

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