This Week In Art/Culture/Entertainment
By John Swartz
Well, it had to happen sometime. The Orillia Scottish Festival has made a decision to shift all the planned activity indoors for this, the 48th, festival. Offhand, I don’t recall any other event having to make this kind of change, other than the odd Sunday evening band concert shifting to council chambers at the last minute because of the weather.
I spoke with Kevin Gangloff and he told me it was partly the smoke in the air, which has abated to some degree, but also to what the weather forecast is predicting – thunderstorms and lighting, which made the committee decide to go indoors.
The possibility of lightning is a real concern. I would not want to be out standing in any field with lightning happening, especially if being a member of a colour guard hold flagpoles/lightning rods.
The legion is now the venue. The parade is cancelled and all the bands will perform at the legion. Same goes for other musical acts that were to perform in the park. The committee has arranged for one food vendor to set up at the legion.
The 48th Highlanders Military Band was already schedule to perform at the legion on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The Duets competition (snare and one piper) will be at the legion instead of the park at 2 p.m.
Sunday has the traditional Kirkin’ O’ the Tartan at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. At 10 a.m. Back at the legion the Pipes and Drums of Canada will play at 1 p.m.. The Toronto Signals Band will be on at 2 p.m. This is interesting in that the Sigs are celebrating their 100th anniversary as is the Royal Canadian Legion; the Sigs had decided they would try and schedule performance at 100 legions and the festival fit in nicely to that plan. When the Sigs are done, the Kempencelts will takeover.
Parking is proving to be a pain at the waterfront post all the reconstruction, and it will be harder to find a spot up by the legion. To that end the festival has a shuttle bus running from the Orillia Recreation Centre.
Because it’s Scottish Festival weekend, the Saturday and Sunday night concerts at the Aqua Theatre were not scheduled and will return July 25 with Chase Heaslip performing and the Orillia Big Band July 26.
The Friday night movies in the park was also not scheduled for this weekend and will return July 24 with Back To The Future.
Aqua Theatre
Last Saturday night was the first evening of music at Couchiching Beach Park. Two bands split the program. Still Deciding was on first. On the whole, I thought they performed better than the last time I saw them. Their strength is the dominance of bass guitar utilizing a more melodic approach than sticking with a foundation for the guitars.
Seasons Change was next. I spent the whole set trying to figure out if the lead singer was Sam Johnston and it turned out it was. I thought her singing performance was a step above that of many others being more expressive and connected to the lyric content. They also did an interesting cover of Jimi Hendrix’s The Wind Cries Mary.
I also thought the sound production was very good. In the past, bands have sounded like they were playing in a garage, but Mark Webster had a nice mix happening and a good spread across the audio field.
After that I was at the legion to hear Grate Northern play. They do Grateful Dead tunes. This is a great band and you have to be if you are going to do any kind of justice to Grateful Dead music. They even gave a Grateful Dead treatment to the only cover tune I’ve heard them do, Bruce Cockburn’s Waiting For A Miracle.
The thing about this band is, you don’t have to know the Grateful Dead tunes to appreciate the exceptional musicianship.
The Shorts
- July 25 is Mardi Gras at the Port of Orillia. In the evening Orangeman plays music. They’re a pretty solid band.
- There is a competition to create some art for the main doors to the Opera House happening right now. Whatever you come up with will be transferred to vinyl and applied to the doors. Proposals are due by July 23 and you can find submission details online.
- Bleeker has a bunch of new tunes they’ve made videos for, and they just announced they will be opening for The Trews at Casino Rama for a Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital Foundation fundraiser in October. You can get tickets for that show here. The foundation is also running a 50/50 draw in conjunction with the concert and you can get a ticket online.
- Something different is happening at the legion Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. called Life is Sad. The blurb says, “evening devoted to the beauty of melancholy through folk music” and if you know Nate Mills is involved, than you know it won’t be all tears. He’s performing along with Ellis, Dogmouth, Dylan Court, and Wm Matt Miller and video by Tyler Grace. Admission is $15.
- The Orillia Museum of Art and History has two new exhibits The Many Faces of Paul Shilling: A Retrospective. and Awaken The Spirits. – art by Rama’s Drake Williams; other exhibits to see are a textile show, From Hand to Heirloom: The Art of Craft , and the permanent exhibit of Gordon Lightfoot’s personal effects… Peter Street Fine Arts has works by Molly Farquharson this month… Cloud Gallery has Kerry Walford in July 25 for their Meet the Artist series from noon to 2 p.m.; she will also have a beginner friendly oil painting workshop in the morning; register for the workshop here.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
