Free outdoor performances will return to Gibsons and Sechelt next week, with emerging artists taking the stage alongside familiar favourites throughout the summer months.
The Sechelt Summer Music Series — underwritten by the District of Sechelt — has concentrated its focus on a single headliner each Saturday at the Hackett Park amphitheatre. Producer Ross Powell winnowed his roster of 60 eligible acts down to the 11 available spots. “I want a nice mix, and sometimes there’s new acts that have sprung up that I want to feature,” Powell said. “And sometimes there are people who just haven’t played for a while.”
The official start of the series is on Canada Day, when Graham Walker and The Jilly Bears (featuring Vicki Beeman, Patrice Pollack, Jill Shatford, and Cliff Simon) will perform a lineup celebrating the beauty of diversity. The newly formed SpinDrift Street (Garth Bowen, Randy Shepherd and Charlie Veaudry) will also play covers and originals. Hula hoop artist Dixie Honey (“a perennial favourite,” said Powell) will offer head-spinning acrobatics.
While each Saturday show concentrates on one ensemble — ranging from the horn-driven jazz of Control Group CA to stalwart cover artists Half Cut & The Slackers —, the Aug. 23 show will unite three guitar singer-songwriters: Bradley Wells, Stephan LaCasse and Michael Friedman. “The three of them together is going to be a great little act,” said Powell.
Wells is one of a handful of artists who will also be appearing at the Music in the Landing series on the Gibsons harbour foreshore, which is supported by the Town of Gibsons (as well as through donations solicited from concertgoers). The outdoor series features performances on Friday nights at the marina gazebo and Saturday evenings at the Winegarden Park amphitheatre. Buskers will also perform on Sunday afternoons at the park’s bus shelter.
“It’s one of my most joyous experiences,” said Kevin Crofton, who produces the weekend concerts. SpinDrift, dance band Mad Cow, and the Holly Hawks (Joël and Holly Fafard) are among the groups making appearances in both Sechelt and Gibsons. Kiki Connelly, who wowed audiences at the springtime Artesia Coffee House in Sechelt, will perform at Winegarden in mid-August with her band The Understory.
The genre-defying Belt grunge-rock ensemble, which had its Winegarden debut in 2024, is slated to return for another performance; its lead singer, Brielle Taylor, has committed to a solo appearance at the gazebo on Aug. 22. “I’m really intrigued to see what she comes up with,” said Crofton. “I mean, she’s just 16 now and a great vocal talent, that’s for sure.”
Acoustic-and-electronic ambient artists Matthew Lovegrove and Andrew Bate will appear for the first time with the Music in the Landing series, following their plein-air performance last September as part of the Living Forest Institute’s hike-in concerts.
Walter Martella — music director of the Powell River Academy of Music, who adjudicated bands during this spring’s Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts — will join accordionist Karina Inkster to squeeze the sounds of qathet’s annual Accordion Fest (which they founded) into a gazebo performance in early August. “Walter Martella is kind of legendary here on the Coast,” observed Crofton.
The first Gibsons performance will feature singer-songwriter Lowry Olafson on July 4 at the gazebo. Olafson is currently in pre-production on his 10th album — and his first full-length release since 2008; he told the Coast Reporter he will also perform at house concerts throughout the summer to “get these new songs out into the world.”
Meanwhile, a dozen multigenerational performers from Driftwood Players Story Theatre will enact family-friendly fables at both concert venues and other festivals across the Coast, beginning with Canada Day in Hackett Park.
“They are takes on stories from around the world,” explained Story Theatre director Linda McTurk, “but most of them have been adapted by locals.” Children’s author Aaron Zerah penned The Birds Become Friends; The Turnip was written by Marissa Fischer; JoAnne Bennison wrote The Awfully-Crowded House, and Robert Munsch’s The Paper Bag Princess was adapted by Justin Huston.
The concert lineup for the Sechelt Summer Music Series is online at sechelt.ca/en/arts-and-recreation/summer-music-series.aspx. The Gibsons in the Landing Series maintains an active social media presence at facebook.com/Music.Landing.
