I had previously blogged about my discovery of New Brighton Park during one of my daily walks to Empire Fields. In actual fact, Empire Fields is just one of the many amenities in a larger area collectively known as Hastings Park, in the eastern side of Vancouver.
Hastings Park is known by Vancouverites with different names – Playland, PNE or Pacific National Exhibition or Pacific Coliseum. They all refer to the same entity – amenities located in a huge plot of land known as Hastings Park. The park itself also hosts many other “places of interests”, like the Empire Fields (stadium with a running track, workout stations and a bicycle park), Pacific Coliseum (hosting hockey leagues), The Sanctuary (restored park with a pond and river), Italian Garden, Momiji Garden, Agrodome, Hastings Racecourse and an amphitheatre.
Empire Fields
While Playland is the most famous facility in Hastings Park, the Empire Fields is likely the more visited location in the whole of the park. It is free to enter, open to public all year round and it offers facilities that caters to a variety of needs.
On an average summer day, the running track and field would be filled by people of all ages to play, workout or hone their skills in football. I would sit on the spectator stand and watch the sports people do their stuff, while getting my much needed Vitamin D 😛
Between the tracks and Playland is a stretch of land set aside for various workout stations. There were tables for table tennis, stationary workout devices and even an enclosed area for beach volleyball (complete with sand)! There were also playgrounds for kids to expend their energy outdoors.
On the furthest end of Empire Fields was a bicycle park with undulating mounds for cyclists to practise their mountain biking skills.
Hastings Racecourse
From the bicycle park, a path branches off into 2, in which one leads to New Brighton Park that I mentioned in another post. The other path snaked westwards behind Playland to the Hastings Racecourse and amphitheatre.
The Hastings Racecourse was closed due to the pandemic, so I could only look at it from the outside every time I passed by on my walks. The spectator stand looked amazing against the blue sky as I peered through the closed gates.
Its website said that it also housed a casino (i.e. slot machines) and dining. It was too bad that it never opened for business during the period when I had spare time to explore Hastings Park!
Amphitheatre
Across from Hastings Racecourse, the amphitheatre rose from the vast empty lot of land to merge with the skyline of Playland. According to online resources, this would be the place for watching open air concerts, which was part of the programmes organised by PNE during summer.
Again, the pandemic took its toll and deep into summer, the place remained desolated every time I was there.
There were a few weekends I knew that they organised some carnival in and around the amphitheatre. The first was actually a food event, albeit with a drive-thru. Drivers would drive into the space and buy food from the food trucks without getting off their cars and they would be off as soon as they got their food.
I knew, because that event created a snaking queue on the main road!
But on the many occasions I was there, the place was empty, save a few souls who were also there to find peace and quiet. Sometimes, I would also use the spectator stand as my workout area, climbing up and down the aisles to get some blood pumping.
Agrodome and Livestock Buildings
Right beside the amphitheatre were the buildings for Agrodome and Livestock buildings. I found out online that they housed skating rinks and other entertainment facilities. If you were to look at the buildings from the outside like me, you would never have guessed what were inside!
Most parts of the Livestock buildings were rundown, with paint peeling off the walls and weeds growing from the corners. For a long time, I thought it was an abandoned building complex. That is, until I walked on the side of the building facing Hastings Racecourse.
The “facade” of the building was better maintained, though it still looked abandoned. The structure of the main entrance was made of tall columns to create a sense of grandeur. At the corner of the building, it looked like a mansion was built into the complex.
The whole architecture was sort of like a throwback to the 60s, but yet it was also a random mix of styles that I could not make sense of.
The Agrodome was one of the massive buildings in the area. Again, the brutalist style harked back to the 60s/70s. I found it best to take pictures of it against the sky with rolling clouds looming over the roof.
In between the Agrodome and the Pacific Coliseum was a modest one storey barrack style building. It reminded me of the old barracks built in early 1900s Singapore. I remember sleeping in one of those barracks during my NS days. This building struck me vividly whenever I crossed path with it!
Pacific Coliseum
There are 2 cylindrical buildings in Hastings Park, and the Pacific Coliseum makes the Agrodome look like a dwarf. Although it shared a similar name as Hong Kong Coliseum, the Pacific Coliseum of Vancouver was used mainly as an indoor arena for sporting events and the occasional Cirque Du Soleil tours.
I managed to climb up the steps leading to one of the entrances facing North Vancouver and got a very good view of the North Shore mountains. The Pacific Coliseum is perhaps one of the tallest buildings near the edge of water, which makes it a great spot for catching vantage views of the surrounding parks, racecourse, Burrard Inlet and of course, skyline of the north.
Italian Garden
Walking towards the direction of Hastings Street, an Italian themed garden ran parallel to Renfrew Street. However, at first sight, I thought the structures looked Greek rather than Italian. But I’m no expert of classical Western art, so I can’t be certain.
I found more people seated at the benches lining the pathways in this park than other parts of Hastings Park. I suppose most of them were residents from the apartment buildings across Renfrew Street, seeking out some outdoor fresh air as the weather warmed.
Momiji Garden
From the Italian Garden, I traversed the tree-lined path in between the PNE administration building and The Forum building to Momiji Garden.
The Momiji Garden is hidden from view from Hastings Street with a line of tall trees and dense shrubs, but beyond that barrier laid a meticulously sculpted landscape that reminisced of quaint gardens of imperial Japan.
This garden was built for a solemn purpose. During WWII, the Agrodome and Livestock buildings were used to intern Japanese Canadians. The living conditions were bad and many people suffered.
Momiji Garden was built to serve as a reminder of this unbecoming past.
A note though. Walking through the path leading to Momiji Garden from Hastings Street can be a challenge. The dense vegetation provides shade, but in summer, the path was swarming with bugs. Wear a mask to prevent accidental breathing in of live bugs!
The Sanctuary
My favourite in Hastings Park is also the biggest feature and most underrated amenity.
It felt like Sungei Buloh smacked in the middle of the city. There were dirt/gravel tracks, boardwalks, ponds, viewing decks and fishing platforms.
The Sanctuary was restored and opened in 1990s by tearing down several buildings that were part of the entertainment features in Hastings Park back in the 1960s. A river that originally flowed through Hastings Park was restored and resumed flowing into Burrard Inlet, via the park connector I passed by on my way to New Brighton Park from Empire Fields.
Since its completion, it has become a sanctuary for wildlife and especially for migrating birds. BUT… I didn’t see any of those nice birds. Instead, all I saw were the ducks/goose living in the pond!
Parting Words
The Hastings Park is a sprawling complex comprising of so many buildings, amenities and features. Some of them are open to public, for a fee or for free, and some of them were administrative buildings.
I roamed the compounds with no prior research, so I was exploring different parts of the park bit by bit, day by day. Like I mentioned, I started at Empire Fields and branched off to explore New Brighton Park. I saw the Hastings Racecourse on my way and made it a point to go down the other path leading to the racecourse on my future walks.
One thing led to another. I explored Hastings Racecourse and amphitheatre one day and found The Sanctuary on my way to find Italian Garden. I ended up getting to Italian Garden until a week later, but not before I found Agrodome, Pacific Coliseum and Momiji Garden.
The stay home orders afforded me the time to explore the vast grounds of Hastings Park. Add to the element of surprise I had, by not researching on the place as much as possible, I was discovering parts of the park like a little adventure.
If you are ever in Vancouver, and even better, staying around Hastings Sunrise, you should also try to explore Hastings Park between Spring and Autumn. I’m not sure whether it would be a good idea to walk the trails during the rainy season of Winter, though. I thought it would be a sight to behold to explore the park when it snows in Vancouver!
I haven’t got the chance to do that. If you do, please share with me your experience and photos!
Till then, stay wanderlust!