How better to follow Vancouver’s biggest party but with another party? That’s right, folks, Vancouver’s Car-Free Festival wraps up at 6 pm (8 pm on Main Street) but its fabulous afterparty will already be opening its doors a mere one hour later — almost precisely as long as it takes for Festival volunteers to fold up tables — at the ANZA Hall (3 West 8th Avenue at Ontario Royal Canadian Legion hall at 2205 Commercial Drive (at 6th, upstairs). Admission is free for Festival volunteers (a humble $5 for everyone else, though no one will be turned away due to lack of funds) and those who just can’t stop giving of themselves should have a blast at the start of the night with a jam session. It’s true! That unscripted musical mayhem will be followed by live music from two acts — a blast of Balkan brass with the Orkestar Slivovica and an uncanny visitation from East Van’s jug band of the damned, the Creaking Planks. All this plus sest on the decks from DJs Osmunda and Kaminanda, hosting by Jessica Rabbit, and the much-vaunted blinking lights of the Revelry Society!

PS — if you’re not careful, you might catch us earlier in the day visiting John Barbour’s musical barricade and logging an appearance at Venus’ birthday party amidst all the festival hubbub bustle and hustle.

As an experiment into filling a whole night at Cafe Montmartre (4362 Main Street at 28th Avenue) with varied textures of performance from members of our multifarious crew and extended family, the Creaking Planks celebrate Blackbox Squeezebeard entering into his fourth decade with the April (Ship of) Fools Variety Show from 8 pm through “late” (past midnight!) Saturday, April 4th. Performances will include magic from Travis, interstitial improvisation and ukulele from Ehren Salazar and John Barbour, new music from familiar faces Paul Hendriks (aka the Rev. Lucian Rumblebucket), possibly demonstrating his banjo aptitude, and Eryn Holbrook (aka Daisy Jones-Locher — who worked a wonderful whimsical adaptation of Hieronymus Bosch’s “Ship of Fools” into the show’s poster!) contributing a solo set a couple of months earlier than usual, sharing her voice-and-keys songwriting not much heard since the days of her Perpetual Dream Theory project. Also joining us will be a very special set from washtub bass outsider Al Mader, the Minimalist Jug Band, and of course a couple of sets of Creaking Planks creaking and planking.

At Montmartre we play for tips, but we anticipate your generosity in support of this jam-packed night and its auspicious occasion.

Edit: phew! What a night! Check out VanCityMike’s gallery of shots from the variety show up on Flickr!