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This article was published 30/06/2022 (1226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Workman, fireworks to light up the Downs

July 1, 1-11 p.m.
Assiniboia Downs Gaming & Event Centre, 1975 Portage Ave.
$10 admission (ages five and under free), $5 parking

If you’re jonesing for your fireworks fix this Canada Day, go west. Assiniboia Downs Gaming and Event Centre is hosting a Canada Day festival that starts at 1 p.m. and will include those thrilling aerial pops, bangs and flashes via CanFire Pyrotechnics at 11 p.m.

Prior to the fireworks, there will be plenty to see and do for all ages. The day’s events include a range of activities for kids, over 100 local artisans and makers offering up their wares, a beer garden and all manner of food trucks.

Live music kicks off right at 1 p.m. with a lineup headlined by Hawksley Workman and including Space Case, Cassidy Mann, Madeleine Roger, Justin Lacroix Band, the Incredibly Hip and Sassy Mellows.

Tickets are $10 at the gate or in advance at wfp.to/downsjuly1, with free admission for those five and under, and parking is $5. For more, see wfp.to/asdowns.

— Ben Sigurdson

Come together to drum together

July 1, 12:30-1:45 p.m.
Bridgwater Lakes Park Fountain, 75 Bridge Lake Dr.
Free, register at canadadaydrumming.com

What better way to celebrate Canada Day than with a Guinness World Record? The Winnipeg Chinese Senior Association is hosting the local section of a multicultural, nation-wide drumming event designed to bring Canadians together in musical harmony.

Canada Day Drumming is an annual event that started in 2017 as a celebration of the 150th anniversary of confederation. So far, the group has obtained two different Guinness World Record titles: “Most Nationalities in a Drum Circle” (2018) and “Most People Performing a Drum Roll Online Simultaneously” (2021). Last year’s distinction was achieved with 581 drummers taking part virtually across 148 cities. This year’s event will be an attempt to break that record with a combination of in-person and online events.

Local drummers are invited to join the free festivities Bridgwater Lakes Park Fountain this Friday. Extra drums will be available for those without their own. Participants can register online ahead of time or as a walk-up on the day of the event.

The itinerary includes a dragon dance performance, O Canada sing along and cake with drumming set to begin at 1 p.m. sharp. The drum roll will last for six minutes and the record attempt will be livestreamed across the country.

— Eva Wasney

Canada’s music remembered, from the hundredth meridian

Friday, 8:30 p.m. Blue Note Park, 220 Main St.
Tickets : $20 at Eventbrite.ca

Some of Winnipeg’s top musicians will look at life from Both Sides Now – rock and roots music that is – on Canada Day evening.

It’ll be a time for red and white, with some blues thrown in, at Blue Note Park, the summer music venue on Main Street.

A playlist of Canada’s greatest songs can go on forever — as Free Press journalists found out in 2017 when compiling a Canada 150 list of the country’s 150 greatest tunes — so it’ll be a challenge for the likes of Chris Carmichael, Gabriela Ocejo, Kevin Hogg, Jamie Buckboro, Sarah Maureen and Rob Pachol, and a delight for the audience, to find out what rock ‘n’ roots songs they have in store.

No doubt there will be some give and take, but still, somehow, they’ll distil all those famous tunes by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Buffy Sainte-Marie and the Tragically Hip, among others, into an evening of music that should swell Canadians’ hearts.

— Alan Small

 

An audio excursion to Mozambique

Saturday, 8:30 p.m., West End Cultural Centre, 586 Ellice Ave.
Tickets: $20

Casimiro Nhussi is a man of many talents. He is a dancer, trained at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre in New York. He was the artistic director of the Mozambique National Song and Dance Company. He is the founder of the city’s only African contemporary dance company, NAfro Dance Productions. Oh, and he’s also a five-time nominee at the Western Canadian Music Awards.

Nhussi brings all those talents to the West End Cultural Centre’s Neighbourhood Patio on Saturday night, playing his music and bringing the sounds of Mozambique to Ellice Avenue, courtesy of his NAfro Band.

Proof of vaccination is required.