I keep running into people who say they don’t really care about Vancouver’s upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics because they “don’t like sports.” Well, okay, then: how about arts?

From January 22 to March 21, it’s going to be a feeding frenzy for culture vultures in BC’s Lower Mainland thanks to the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

(And yes, it is weird that in this time of brutal funding cuts to the arts we are about to enjoy 600 international-calibre performances in a period of 60 days.

My only hope is that someone with a bit of political clout will be so inspired by the experience that they will deliver a demon-crushing come-to-Jesus speech in Victoria as a result….)

The good news is that there are still tickets available for most of the shows; the bad news is, they’re going fast. In fact, had not a kind stranger handed me a friend’s unused ticket to see Streb:Raw at the Roundhouse on Sunday afternoon, I would have been shut out of the (insert superlative here) performance.

Repeat after me: I will not wait ’til the last minute to buy a ticket.

Ask 100 people for their pick-of-the-litter performances and you’d get 100 answers. Best to browse the program guide (pictured above) available from libraries, theatres, and community centres around town, or visit the Olympiad’s events listings page.

Here are my top 5 picks (feel free to disagree!):

• Robert Lepage’s The Blue Dragon/Le Dragon Bleu
• Inuit throat-singer Tanya Tagaq and the Kronos Quartet
• Nix’s The Only Animal, set in Canada’s first theatre built of snow and ice
• Maria Pages’s Flamenco Republic
• U Theatre of Taiwan’s Sound of the Ocean

What are your top picks for the Cultural Olympiad?