What’s up: LoveLocalMB, Gossip, chili cookoff, French Class, Nathaniel Rateliff

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This article was published 13/03/2025 (559 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LoveLocalMB celebrates 10 years of homegrown fare

• Victoria Inn Hotel & Convention Centre, 1808 Wellington Ave.
• Saturday, 5-9 p.m.
• Tickets $40 plus taxes available online.

Manitoba food and beverage producers will once again be in the spotlight as the 10th annual LoveLocalMB sees local makers convene at the Victoria Inn Hotel & Convention Centre.

More than 40 brewers, chefs, distillers, winemakers and artisan producers will be sampling their wares on Saturday from 5-9 p.m. Drinks makers on hand will include Dead Horse Cider Co., Farmery Estate Brewery, One Great City Brewing Co., Shrugging Doctor Beverage Company and Sheepdog Brew Co., as well as both Capital K and Patent 5 distilleries.

On the food side, enjoy free samples from the Butter Tart Lady, Perfect Pierogies Ltd., Molly’s Meat Pies, Decadence Chocolates and A Taste of Africa.

Tickets for LoveLocalMB, presented by Gourmet Inspirations and Farm Credit Canada, are $40 plus taxes and include a welcome mocktail as well as all samples. For tickets and more information, click here.

— Ben Sigurdson

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Gossip with Hood & Dagger

• Gas Station Arts Centre, 445 River Ave.
• Thursday to Sunday
• Tickets: $25 available online.

Psst. Psst. Yes, you there, with the good old-fashioned newspaper in your hands: we’ve heard from an extremely reliable source that there’s going to be a hit in the art gallery this weekend, and we ain’t talking about the Abraham Anghik Ruben retrospective at the WAG. (That’s coming later in the spring.)

No, we’re letting you in on Gossip, a noirish comedy coming to the Gas Station Arts Centre courtesy of local independent theatre company Hood and Dagger.

With a cast — Lisa Bryski, Natasha Fisher, Lorraine James, Tara Lambert, Kevin Reid, Rick Scherger, Tyler Shingoose and Rebecca Watson — of eccentric lawyers, pseudo-celebrities and scheming politicians, Canadian playwright George F. Walker’s whodunit is sure to have audiences considering the veracity of their day-to-day sources.

Written in 1977, the play certainly hasn’t lost any relevance in the post-truth era of social media aggregation and deep-fake influencers.

With regular tickets going for $25, a VIP fee of $90 includes a three-course meal — plus wine, beer or mocktail — from Osborne Village staple Zaytoon on March 15 or 16. Shawarma, shish tawook, musakaa, kunafeh and baklava go well with entertainment.

Each show also opens up with a duet concert from Robin Stangl and Tom Brooks, performing under the alias “And Then There Were Two.”

And remember — you didn’t hear it from us.

— Ben Waldman

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Ready, steady, stir: chili cookoff

• St Norbert Farmers Market, 3514 Pembina Hwy.
• Saturday, 10 a.m- 1 p.m.
• Tickets: $15 available online.

Spoons out, appetites at the ready and prepare to eat for a good cause at this spicy Saturday cookoff.

Ten chefs from across the province will be dishing out their version of the Tex-Mex favourite to raise funds at the annual charity event, now in its third year.

The chili chefs with the most votes will get to donate ticket sales to Manitoba-based organizations making an impact in the community

Returning champion Steve Hunt-Lesage of Fat Iguana Chef’s Kitchen is hoping to snag another big win for Manitoba Mutts with his 2025 offering, Nashville Hot Chicken Chili with Fresh Tortilla Chips, a collaboration with Los Comales Morales.

Last year Hunt-Lesage raised $1,000 for the pups of the province with his Lion’s Mane Chili.

Also making a comeback is 2023 winner Suzan Stupack of the Stak Co. who won $1,000 for Alliance Boxing Club. This year Stupack is cooking Mustang Chili for Bear Clan patrol.

Other entrants vying for the top prize of $1,500 for the charity of their choice include Super Flying Dumpling with Super Flying Chili cooking for the Children’s Hospital; Cochrane Creek Farm with Nacho Mama’s Chili cooking for Rossbrook House; and Behavioural Health Foundation’s Yummy Filling Chili cooking to raise funds for their programming.

And don’t fret if chili’s not your thing — the regular farmers market, featuring Manitoba-made food and drinks will still take place.

— AV Kitching

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French Class & Paige Drobot

• Public Domain, 633 Portage Ave.
• Friday, 9:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $20 at the door

Winnipeg electro-pop act French Class feel like embodiment of a classic N64 game.

The beats zip-zap along with the housey style of ’90s video game soundtracks. Centre stage: a band leader so whimsically vibrant she feels like the star of a kids’ fantasy adventure.

That’s Megumi Kimata, who bops around singing about “hot girl summer,” “boy gone goth” and not wanting to go to French class. The audience definitely wants to go to French Class, because they’re usually every bit as bouncy.

Kimata, who moved from Japan to Winnipeg 2015, is about to go home — but just for the weeklong stretch of a music tour. After playing at Public Domain this Friday with Paige Drobot and Yellow Choklit, FC and PD cross the Pacific to play five concerts in Japan.

“The timing was great because I just put out a record (the single Alien Girl) and expanding touring into the states right now is a big ‘No thank you,’” says Drobot, the psychedelic rocker with one of Winnipeg’s most recognizable voices.

Alien Girl is her first release since her 2023 LP The Psychics, which Exclaim! calls “an ass-kicking debutante ball.” Drobot headlines the tours with two band mates while Kimata — who’s often joined by a cast of some of the city’s favourite musicians — plays this tour solo, her signature drum machines in tow, promoting her new Five album.

“I am excited to eat a fruit sandwich from 7-Eleven. Megumi is excited for horse sashimi,” Drobot says..

— Conrad Sweatman

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Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats

• Canada Life Centre, 300 Portage Ave.
• Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets start at $64.75 via Ticketmaster

American singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff and his perpetually perspiring backing band return to Winnipeg this weekend for their third local concert in three years — this, however, will be the group’s first headlining show at the arena.

With his big voice and big seven-piece band, Rateliff dabbles in Americana, blues, soul and rock. He gained mainstream appeal in 2015 with the single S.O.B., and last year released South of Here, his fourth studio album with the Night Sweats and the impetus for the group’s latest North American Tour.

Rateliff and the Night Sweats joined Dallas Green and Ruby Waters at Canada Life Centre last February and previously headlined the Burton Cummings Theatre in 2022.

Also on the ticket for Saturday’s show are Australian blues-rock siblings the Teskey Brothers.

— Eva Wasney

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