Free outdoor concerts in Gibsons, Sechelt and Roberts Creek run all summer long — rain or shine.
In Gibsons this weekend, the Music in the Landing series starts with jazz musicians Karina Inkster and Walter Martella (and friends) under the marina gazebo on Friday, Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. The next day, in Winegarden Park at 4:30 p.m., Martini Madness performs a tantalizing mix of bossa, samba and lounge jazz. After the Martinis run dry at 6:30 p.m., the electrifying songstress Kiki Connelly and her Understory ensemble will perform soul, gospel, and rhythm and blues until dusk.
At the Sechelt Summer Music Series on Saturday, Aug. 9, Mad Cow performs on the Hackett Park stage starting at noon. Mad Cow is a trio of seasoned pro musicians who got together on a whim and had so much fun they made it permanent. The group features Darren Cassidy (vocals, guitar), Randy Shepherd (vocals, bass), and Jim Foster (vocals, guitar, harmonica) playing a mix of country rock, folk rock, and a touch of rock and blues. The trio recently released an unapologetically patriotic single called Elbows Up (“We got our elbows up / up in the Great White North / the birthday’s July first / it ain’t July fourth”).
In Roberts Creek, the gazebo behind the community library comes alive for Slow Sundays in the Creek, starting at noon on Aug. 10 (in the midst of this weekend’s annual Creek Daze celebration). The Beachcombers Ukulele Group Singers (BUGS) start with a revue featuring favourites from the last century. The Knotty Dotters Marimba Band follows at 12:30 p.m., featuring Beth Gleason, Catherine Pedretti, Jeanne Robinson, Loreen Dawson, Naomi Naomi, Nadi Fleschhut, and Linda Williams.
At 1 p.m. the Wildflowers play an eclectic mix of cover songs (Vicki Beeman, Antonia Robertson, Dave Taylor, Bruce and Janet McMorland). The Slow Sunday Gospel Chorus appears at 1:40 p.m., composed of Kiki Connelly, Antonia Robertson, Bill Barclay, Graham Walker and Steven Schwabl. Them Ordinary Things (Mark Lebbell, Kaia Nielsen, Simon Paradis and Paul Dwyer) winds up the afternoon in extraordinary fashion at 2:40 p.m.
Whale of a festival
Four organizations are joining forces next week to celebrate whale biodiversity, community-driven research initiatives, and the arts. Working together to present the Sunshine Coast Whale Festival are the Blue Act Marine Society, the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association, the Loon Foundation, and Ocean Wise. All events are offered free of charge.
The four-day festival starts with an intoxicating night of trivia at Persephone Brewing on Aug. 14. The “Whales and Ales” event begins at 6 p.m.
On Friday evening, from 5:30 until 8 p.m., the Gibsons Public Market hosts the Wild Whales Research and Community Science Symposium. Leading whale experts will make presentations that illuminate ocean science, storytelling, and discovery. Registration is required; browse to ocean.org/event/sunshine-coast-whale-festival for instructions.
On Saturday, Aug. 16, the Gibsons Whale Trail sign at the Gibsons Landing Harbour Authority Public Wharf will be unveiled during a ceremony at 11 a.m. Gibsons Harbour is the newest location on the Whale Trail, a network of more than 100 sites from which to view marine mammals from shore. The event will feature a “shore introduction” from Donna Sandstrom, Whale Trail founder and author of Orca Rescue! The True Story of an Orphaned Orca Named Springer. (There will be no parking at the Harbour parking lot; attendees must park up on the road or walk over to the event.)
All day on Saturday, the TidePools Aquarium at the Gibsons Public Market will offer free admission to the Ocean Wise Sea Dome: an immersive video featuring humpback whales, sperm whales, dolphins and opportunities to learn about local cetacean biodiversity. The Dome highlights research efforts and citizen science initiatives currently underway in the area to help protect and recover such iconic animals.
On Aug. 17 from 1 to 4 p.m., the Ocean Wise Sea Dome will be onsite in the Tranquility Garden behind the EarthFair Store in Madeira Park.
In the same location, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., local artist Joanna C. Cooke will lead Trash to Treasure, a community art project to build a giant orca whale sculpture from repurposed materials. The finished artwork will be displayed on the Sunshine Coast. The Aqui Es Mexico food truck will be onsite, supplementing light refreshments on offer.
Oh Mycelia!
Isabella Perron and Simon Gidora, collectively known as Duo Mycelia, performed a two-hour program at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church last weekend — the second of two sold-out concerts on the Sunshine Coast. The musicians (by turns violinists, pianists, and operatic vocalists) presented a captivating program of summer-themed repertoire. Their emphasis on English art songs culminated in a tribute to legendary Coast Recital Society artistic director Frances Heinsheimer Wainwright, in the form of Benjamin Britten’s Last Rose of Summer.
In the second half, the two focused on musical theatre and 20th-century fare. Gidora reminisced about his childhood days performing in the church as part of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts. Perron, at the keyboard, played a fervent keyboard rendition of Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm — then, as the applause subsided, a spectator in the choir loft shouted: “Yes, you do!” Perron raised her eyes inquisitively, whereupon the fan added, “... have rhythm!”
A final standing ovation was immediate and rapturous after the pair’s original arrangement of The Beatles’ Blackbird. Gidora intimated that the duo’s longform work A Personal Journey of Being may be performed on the Sunshine Coast in the near future; audience members nodded in emphatic approval.
