PICNURBIA. Photo by Krista Jahnke (kristajahnke.com)

In the summer, Vancouverites leave their neighbourhoods and head to the beach to picnic. From now until September 5, you can try the urban alternative in the heart of downtown with VIVA Vancouver’s new pop-up park PICNURBIA.

The pop-up park is located in the 800-block of Robson Street, between Robson Square and the Vancouver Art Gallery, and will feature bright yellow artificial turf, grassy hills, beach umbrellas and built-in benches. It’s an ideal space to sit, relax and picnic.

PICNURBIA was conceived by the Vancouver-based design collective Loose Affiliates and is one of the many highlights of VIVA Vancouver, a free, summer-long program to create engaging public spaces and a more vibrant street culture in neighbourhoods across the city through street space transformations and activities.

VIVA Vancouver is hosted by the City of Vancouver and many local community and business organization partners.

Here is a great blog post and video on PICNURBIA from Spacing Vancouver by Brian Gould.

Picnurbia/VIVA Vancouver from Brian Gould on Vimeo.

While checking out PICNURBIA, don’t forget about VIVA Vancouver’s other events and activations across the city this month:

Cambie Village
August 13, 20 and 27, a community plaza at West 18th Avenue and Cambie Street will host the Sizzlin’ Summer Festival.

Collingwood-Joyce SkyTrain Station
From August 24 to September 3, four parking spots near the Joyce-Collingwood SkyTrain Station will be transformed into a mini plaza.

Granville Street
Every weekend until September 5, Granville Street will play host to a variety of community events and unique activations. Highlights for August include:
Saturday, August 13: City in Motion Concert
Friday, August 19: FOX concerts
Saturday, August 20: Supra Skateboard Event
Saturday, August 27: Underworld Game of Skate
Sunday, August 28: Blim Market

To find out more about VIVA Vancouver and a list of events, visit vancouver.ca/VIVA.