This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment

July 29, 2022July 29, 2022 Sunonline/Orillia City of Orillia, Creative Nomad Studios, Hibernation, Lance Anderson, Leacock Medal For Humour, ODAC, OMAH, Opera House, Peter Street Fine Arts

By John Swartz

The Coldwater Steampunk Festival happens Friday and Saturday August 5 and 6 – in Coldwater, of all places.

This thing draws thousands every year, and while you might not dress up for it, hundreds do. It’s a great day for photographers. It’s also going to be a great weekend for music at the festival this year. Friday night starts at 4 p.m. with performances on the Mill Street stage by Peg & Willy and Lo-Fi (from Hamilton). Saturday the music starts at 10 a.m. with The Renaissance Band, followed by Music by Jake, Memphis Mudd and the Springwater Band.

There will be performances by Professor Taelstrum’s Variety Show, the Pickpocket Magician, and the Dueling Weapons Academy of Renaissance Fencing, but there are no showtimes available yet.

There are many activities and contests some for kids, some for much older kids. Check out the website, for lots more details of what is happening.

Neighbourhood Arts And Stuff

The City of Orillia has a program of arts activities taking place in neighbourhood parks around the City. They will be August 3 at Hillcrest Park, August 10 at Homewood Park, August 17 at Walter Henry Park and August 24 at Victoria Park.

Each is evening’s activity is lead by a different group – in order – The Old Dance Hall Players, Miriam Goldberger, Nancy Hannah and the Old Dance Hall Players again. So you can join in with improv comedy, learn to dance and learn to make edible art. Hobo Jam is playing music at some of the events.

Each one starts at 6:30 p.m. and it’s free to participate. Speaking of City park programs, Music in the Park on Sunday’s at 6:30 p.m. at the Aqua Theatre happens again with the Skyliners on August 14 and the Simcoe County Band August 28.

Speaking of the Aqua Theatre, the rain delayed grand opening happens August 9 at 6:30 p.m. The Orillia Big Band will be playing, there’ll be some speeches, and when the big light goes out you can watch That Night in Toronto, Tragically Hip’s concert video.

The Shorts

Sunday evening Driftwood Theatre is doing King Henry Five at the Leacock Museum. Hume Baugh plays Falstaff and Fluellen. It’s a different kind of Shakespeare production combining three plays. I wrote about it a couple days ago and you can go here for all the details.

Downtown, tonight’s See You On The Patio has art in the Arts District and Creative Nomad Studios has an Artisian Market on the street from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tomorrow Lisa Gillette plays music at the Farmers’ Market.

The Opera House’s production of Driving Miss Daisy is impressionable, as in memories of the performance you know won’t intrude on your enjoyment of this one. See my review here. You can see it until August 12 and tickets are available online.

Lance Anderson put a band together for the Toronto Blues Society’s Blues Summit this year. He had Gene Hardy on sax, Roger Williams on bass, Art Avalos on percussion and Mike Sloski on drums , calling it NOLA Parish (New Orleans, Louisiana). The show was recorded and the video put on the TBS Youtube page yesterday. The rest of the performances will be uploaded – 30 of them – daily through to Sept. 2.

The Leacock Associates are itching to go. They altered their timeline for the medal to the fall, which pushed back all the dates for spring announcements, but the one for the short list of nominees couldn’t wait until mid August. They’ll do it August 3 and we’ll find out if This Hour Has 22 Minutes characters will sweep the top three (Mark Critch, Ron James and Rick Mercer); I wouldn’t bet on it because I’m always wrong on this subject. The medal weekend and dinner is still September 17 (unless they get famished) and you get tickets for those events online

OMAH’s annual Carmichael Canadian Landscape Exhibition isn’t until fall, but if you paint fast you can, you can submit work for the jury to see by August 2. Go here for details (and if you can paint that fast, I have a wall…). OMAH has new exhibits – Conversations: 150th Anniversary of the Ontario Society of Artists, The History Of Orillia In 50 Artefacts and Summer On The Lake. The Reflections of Ourselves exhibit of Maple Leaves constructed by artists from across the country is still up too. Peter Street Fine Arts has works by Bayside Artists featured this month… Hibernation Art has Nicole Rulff’s art featured in August and she’ll be at the gallery August 6 from noon to 3 p.m. … if you want to be part of the Friday night street shenanigans email mollytas@gmail.com to find out how to get space.

Couchiching Craft Brewing has Will Dunlop hosting Vinyl Night on Thurdays; Will Davis and Chris Robinson play Jazz Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. … Quayle’s Brewery has Steven Henry playing Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Evan Farrell Sunday at 3:30 p.m. … the Kensington has an open mic night hosted by Tim Kehoe on Tuesdays from 8 to 11 p.m. … the Hog N’ Penny has trivia night every Thursday… the Barrie Concert Band is at the Aqua Theatre Sunday at 6:30 p.m.