Spur Vancouver
May 22 – 25
spurfestival.ca

Welcome to Spur, Canada’s national festival of politics, art and ideas. Join today’s most provocative thinkers and scholars, artists and activists, journalists and entrepreneurs – from across the country and beyond – to share ideas worth spurring into action. Event tickets and festival packages on sale now!

Spur 2014: Signal vs. Noise
We live in a world in which information is everywhere but facts are unclear, in which opinions are rampant but context is missing. How do we filter the din around us and focus on the trends and patterns that will reveal what is truly at issue? And once we have, how do we respond to those signals? These are the questions we’ll examine as part of the Spur Festival’s 2014 theme: Signal vs. Noise. Join fellow citizens and great thinkers at Spur 2014 for some serious fun and add your voice to the discussion.

Here are just a few of the highlights:

• Envision Vancouver as the greenest city in the world with industry experts, community leaders and The Tyee’s David Beers.
• Leap through the data-looking-glass where data scientists track your online purchases and your House of Cards binge-watching, then reflect back your cultural desires with twice the seductive force. Salon’s Andrew Leonard, the Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman, and UVic’s Jentery Sayers wonder how helpful, or deterministic, these datasets and scientists are in the creation of our culture.
• Ride the SkyTrain into the year 2021 with Taras Grescoe (Bottomfeeder and Straphanger), as he looks at the future of public transit in our ever-urbanizing world.

PLUS: Conjure a magical morning with Harry Houdini and Steven Galloway (The Cellist of Sarajevo); uncover the scientific signal from the political noise with Chris Turner (The Leap) and Paolo Pietropaolo; and revel in the power of punk cacophony with Susanne Tabata and Chris Walter.

But the festival won’t be complete without you: book tickets today, if you haven’t already.

Or better yet, buy a pass and spend the weekend with special access to all the fascinating people, art and ideas. So check out the many exciting events on offer at Spur Vancouver 2014 – then step away from your screen, and into the live conversation!