Everything you need to eat and drink at the Illumination Summer Night Market (PHOTOS)

Long days and warm nights are on their way, and that means it’s time to hit up the night market. There’s a new one to check out this year called the Illumination Summer Night Market.

This will be one of the largest night markets in Metro Vancouver, taking up over 200,000 square feet of space, and featuring over 300 different booths including over 200 retailers and 60 food ones. 

Illumination will feature special weekends dedicated to themes such as Music Festival Weekend, Culture Festival Weekend, and Music, Dance, Singing Competitions. Plus, there are several cool light displays, interactive elements, live entertainment, and loads of teddy bears–yes, teddy bears!

Although Illumination is in a familiar Richmond location (it’s where the Panda Market was last year), and it’s got so much of what we love about night markets. And of course, one of the things we love the most is the food.

There are two aisles with vendors on either side set up, cooking up everything from full plates of noodles to ice cold slushies served in whole fruits, or a Bi Bim Rito–nicknamed “Korean BBQ in a Cone.” Look for lots of stuff on skewers, plenty of bubble tea, and those enormous sticks of fried potatoes in a hurricane swirl (of course!). Bring cash, and expect to pay $5 to $10 per dish.

Here are a few of the delicious eats to find at the Illumination Summer Night Market.

Lamb skewers

Lamb skewers (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Bubble waffles

Green tea bubble waffle (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Hurricane Potato

Hurricane Potato (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Takoyaki

Takoyaki (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Young Coconut

Young Coconut (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Fried squid, tofu, chicken, and fish

Fried everything!! (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Fruit slushies

Watermelon Slush (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Fried Radish Cake

A post shared by @cristineym on May 5, 2017 at 8:31pm PDT

Ice cream filled taiyaki

A post shared by Michelle (@oceanofshells) on May 5, 2017 at 11:21pm PDT

Korean waffles

A post shared by Vancouver Food Adventures 🍽 (@vanxeats) on May 5, 2017 at 11:27pm PDT

Iberico Ham by the slice

A post shared by Cindy Huang (@little.cinchan) on May 5, 2017 at 8:19pm PDT

All kinds of noodles

A post shared by Lynn Z (@lynnz.momo) on May 5, 2017 at 7:56pm PDT

Snowy Ice

A post shared by Alice (@a0607l) on May 5, 2017 at 11:58pm PDT

Dim Sum (and more noodles)

Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive

Halal meat skewers

Halal skewers (Lindsay William-Ross/Daily Hive)

Illumination Summer Night Market

Days/Time: Friday and Saturday from 7 pm to midnight, Sunday from 7 to 11 pm, and long weekends from 7 to midnight.
Dates: May 5 to September 10, 2017
Location: 12631 Vulcan Way (behind Home Depot on Sweden Way)