ABOUT US Centrally located in the heart of Vancouver’s oldest neighborhood the Downtown Eastside one block from Main Street at 254 East Hastings. The Rickshaw Theatre has established its self as Vancouver’s biggest and best Alternative Music Venue. Featuring an over 700-person capacity, premium sound, a great line of sight from every where in the room, 4 bars, 4 green rooms and a massive new neon sign with a marquee the Rickshaw has got it all. As Vancouver and the downtown east side grows and prospers we at Rickshaw hope to continue to provide both the neighborhoods and the cities alternative community with a safe, fun and affordable venue in which it can enjoy live shows. |
HISTORY
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We are big fans of every kind of live music and at the Rickshaw our mandate is “more live music by any means necessary” we will do what ever it takes to achieve this end. The Rickshaw is open to every style and type of live performance. We cater to both Vancouver's up in coming talent as well as larger touring acts and alternative theater and cinema. We are available for bookings of events, rehearsals and photo shoots during the day and for live music, off beat cinema and live theatre at night. Basically if you can put it on stage we will do it. We strive to provide discounted rates for fundraisers and for not for profit groups especially groups from our community the downtown east side.
Originally named the Shaw, The theatre was constructed in the 1970 by the world famous Shaw Brothers as one of there many Chinese language kung-fu action cinema’s. The economic decline of the Vancouver’s down town east side and the Chinese language community’s flight to the suburbs caused the theatre to close to the public in the early 1980's. It remained empty for over 2 decades save for a few raves in the mid 90’s until in the fall of 2008 the new owner David Dupery stumbled upon it while looking for warehouse space for artists. Realizing its huge untapped potential David hunted down the owners in Hong Kong and after months of negotiations with the one remaining Shaw brother, Sir Run Run Shaw through interpreters, bad email translation programs and shark like agents a deal was struck. A new stage was built and an older yet still top of the line in sound and lighting systems was bought for cheep from the soon to be bulldozed Richards on Richards and installed. The Rickshaw officially opening it’s doors In June 2009 and has been going strong ever since. In the first year of operation the theatre has well over 100 live acts grace the stage including local hero’s 3 Inches of Blood, Skinny Puppy, and Japandriods as well as international artists such as The Bouncing Souls, Propagandhi, Beach House, Dillinger Escape Plan, and New Army and looks forward to many more in the years to come.
