What’s up: Soca Reggae festival, quiet disco and nature walk

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This article was published 06/07/2023 (1193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Groove at the Cube with Soca Reggae Festival

July 7 to 8
The Cube, Old Market Square
Tickets from $20 at wfp.to/Nl1

The Soca Reggae Festival returns to the Cube in Old Market Square on Friday and Saturday, with two days of local and international artists bringing the groove-laden sounds of dancehall, reggae, hip-hop, soca, Afrobeat and more.

Each day the party starts at 2 p.m. daily and runs through to 1 a.m. Friday features an all-local lineup including Ezoman, Ben Temana, Sly204, DJ Spanglish, Dub City Foundation and Adiyo, while Saturday offers international artists including dancehall/reggae legend Wayne Wonder, festival first-timer Nessa Preppy, Afrobeat rising star Sojiii as well as DJ Power.

Sookram’s Brewing Co. is quarterbacking everything you need in terms of beer, with their Eternal Sunshine Pale Ale and Desert Island IPA on offer. Additionally, food trucks and local vendors will be on hand to satisfy almost every craving and, for the first time, the fest is also planning an enhanced bottle service.

Tickets for Soca Reggae Fest are $20 per day plus fees (or $30 after 9 p.m. daily), while two-day passes are available for $40 plus fees at wfp.to/Nl1. For more details see socareggaefest.ca.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Quiet at the disco

Saturday, July 8; 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Moonlight Lounge, 108 Osborne St.
Tickets $25 each at Eventbrite

Grab a pair of headphones and tune into your favourite music genre for an evening of individualized dance parties hosted by Silent Disco Manitoba.

The silent disco concept has been around for decades, with DJs transmitting music directly into partygoers’ wireless headphones instead of through speakers and amplifiers. The result is a quiet room full of people dancing together to their own beats.

Silent Disco Manitoba’s event includes three music channels with three DJs playing different genres. The “red” channel features songs from the ’80s, ‘90s and ’00s; “blue” is afrobeats and South African amapiano music; and “green” is hip hop and dancehall. Attendees can switch between channels throughout the night.

Headphones provided at the venue.

— Eva Wasney

 

Discover Manitoba’s Resilient Roots

Sunday, July 9, 10 a.m.
Headingley Grand Trunk Trail
Admission is $11.98 (including fees) at eventbrite.ca

Join biologist John Morgan on what is sure to be a tour-de-field as he takes you on a guided walk through Manitoba’s native prairie grasses, presented by the Manitoba chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wildlife Society.

Participants will learn to identify plants — such as snowberry, prairie smoke and purple crowfoot violet — and what can be done to restore and protect what native prairie grasses remain, which isn’t much. Although these grasses once covered wide swathes of the continent, less than one per cent have survived — including a remnant near Headingley which once stretched all the way to Texas.

Morgan will also draw upon his extensive knowledge of this landscape to share stories about how these plants were used to treat everything from toothaches to mosquito bites, and the reasons behind their decline across North America.

The guided walk will take approximately 90 minutes. Participants are to meet at the south end of Alboro Street in Headingley.

— Jen Zoratti

 

First Fridays finds a Sense of Place

Sense of Place, by Bonnie Hallman, Jackie Turnbull and Olivia Leader
Opens Thursday, July 6, to July 18, Tuesday to Saturday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Friday, July 7, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Cre8ery gallery, 125 Adelaide St., second floor
Free admission, masks strongly recommended

The environment takes centre stage in the works by Manitoba painters Olivia Leader, Jackie Turnbull and Bonnie Hallman in Cre8ery gallery’s contribution to July’s First Fridays at the Exchange.

The three painters — who will be at Cre8ery for the exhibition’s opening for First Fridays at the Exchange — approach the natural world from contrasting viewpoints.

Leader, who is from Portage la Prairie, adds a joyful, whimsical style to Mother Nature with her acrylic scenes. Turnbull creates Impressionist views of plants and animals with acrylics and Aroic acrylic pens. Hallman is a geographer and traveller as well as a painter; the downtown artist seeks to provoke emotions with her views of the environment.

”Leader, who is from Portage la Prairie, adds a joyful, whimsical style to Mother Nature with her acrylic scenes.”–Author

Three other exhibition openings are also part of First Fridays: Walk on a Manitoba Beach (70 Albert St., unit 220), a selection of beach-inspired ceramics hosted by Pottery Empire (70 Albert St. unit 220); The Life of a Party & Unraveling Video, about a knitting machine at Video Pool Media Arts Centre (100 Arthur St.) and ʻAʻohe hope e hoʻi aku ai | And We Never Looked Back (Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art, 290 McDermot, Ave., second floor), which showcases the works of native Hawaiian Kanaka Maoli and Mescalero Apache artist Ian Kuali’i.

— Alan Small