What’s up: Moses Mayes, Summer Game Day, Window Radio, Paranormal Cirque, and more

Free Press staff recommend things to do this week

Advertisement

Advertise with us

Moses Mayes and the Funk Family Orchestra Blue Note Park, 220 Main St. Sunday, 3 p.m. Tickets $23 at Eventbrite After reuniting for a pair of sold-out shows at the Park Theatre in May, Moses Mayes and the Funk Family Orchestra are back with their high-energy blend of funk, house, jazz and hip hop for a show for the whole family.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/07/2025 (443 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Moses Mayes and the Funk Family Orchestra

  • Blue Note Park, 220 Main St.
  • Sunday, 3 p.m.
  • Tickets $23 at Eventbrite

After reuniting for a pair of sold-out shows at the Park Theatre in May, Moses Mayes and the Funk Family Orchestra are back with their high-energy blend of funk, house, jazz and hip hop for a show for the whole family.

BORIS MINKEVICH / Free Press files
                                Moses Mayes is back in action Sunday at Blue Note Park.

BORIS MINKEVICH / Free Press files

Moses Mayes is back in action Sunday at Blue Note Park.

The long-running septet (plus guests) packed the Park for their first Winnipeg shows since 2012. They bring the funk outdoors Sunday afternoon at Blue Note Park, calling the show (via social media) “a tune-up before we hit the summer festival circuit.” That circuit includes British Columbia dates in Golden, Salmon Arm and Kaslo.

While the Blue Note Park show is all ages, guests under 18 years of age must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Tickets are $23 at wfp.to/iTf.

Ben Sigurdson


Summer Game Day

  • Assiniboine Park, Lyric Field
  • Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
  • Free

If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at baseball, wondered what it feel like to wrestle or been inspired by the gymnastic prowess of cheer squads, get yourself to Assiniboine Park for Sport Manitoba’s summer game day event, where bats, balls and pom-poms await.

With more than 20 different sport stations on offer, from baton twirling and boxing to table tennis, water polo and judo, there’s sure to be something to ignite your interest.

Supplied
                                Summer Game Day at Assiniboine Park allows people to try their hands at numerous sports and games.

Supplied

Summer Game Day at Assiniboine Park allows people to try their hands at numerous sports and games.

There are no registration requirements — all you need to do is stop by for a try.

And don’t worry if you’ve never tried playing before; everyone is encouraged to join in the fun. Just make sure to bring a pair of athletic shoes, a water bottle and a good attitude. Organizers also recommend wearing comfortable clothing and lots of sunscreen.

— AV Kitching


Window Radio #12

  • Winnipeg Art Gallery rooftop, 300 Memorial Blved.
  • Thursday, 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. after party
  • Admission $20

Supplied
                                Dray Unger performs at the WAG tonight at the after-party.

Supplied

Dray Unger performs at the WAG tonight at the after-party.

Window Radio, the brainchild of local DJ and musician Hayden Mekai, has emerged over the last year or so as Winnipeg’s closest thing to Boiler Room — a monthly-ish night of house, dancehall and EDM exploring underground sounds you won’t hear at a Canad Inns nightclub.

Window Radio #12 unfolds on the WAG’s rooftop — trading in the event’s usual gritty, secretive venues for the elegant sculpture garden overlooking downtown.

Featured DJs include Rey Abstract, Sie Sie, Ma Bwe, Hayden Mekai while Dray, Sara St. Cyr and the Kaptain play the after-party.

If you really want to make a night of it, head for the Beer Can beside the Granite Club first, amble down the street to the WAG, then stumble over to Window Radio’s afterparty at Public Domain on Portage Avenue. Then don’t drive home.

Conrad Sweatman


Paranormal Cirque IV

  • St. Vital Centre, 1225 St Mary’s Rd.
  • Starts Friday, runs to July 14, various showtimes
  • Tickets $35-$80 available online
  • It’s Halloween in July.

Joshua Davis photo
                                Paranormal Cirque contortionist Nikki Hernandez is back with her troupe.

Joshua Davis photo

Paranormal Cirque contortionist Nikki Hernandez is back with her troupe.

Paranormal Cirque returns to Winnipeg this week, setting up its freaky bigtop in St. Vital Centre’s parking lot. Presented by Cirque Italia, the show made its Canadian debut last summer and offers a mix of theatre, circus arts and cabaret — all with a horror twist. As if the death-defying feats of the acrobats weren’t scary enough.

Paranormal Cirque is aimed at a mature audience, so note that this is a 13+ show. Guests between the ages of 13 and 17 must be accompanied by an adult 21 or over.

Jen Zoratti


Prairie, Our Friend, Oscar

  • The Handsome Daughter, 61 Sherbrook St.
  • Friday, 9 p.m.
  • Admission $20

After joining forces as opening acts last November at the latest album release for Isiah Schellenberg’s recording project Meadows, up-and-coming indie stalwarts Prairie and Our Friend, Oscar share top billing this time around at the Handsome Daughter.

From both acts, listeners can expect a steady stream of shoegaze and cathartic slowcore. Featuring members of Guilty Sleep, Leon’s Getting Larger and Sweeping, Our Friend, Oscar — dubbed “somewhat of a Winnipeg emo supergroup” by The Uniter’s Mack Martens — will play a Saturday afternoon set at the final edition of Real Love Summer Fest later this month in Teulon.

Also on the bill is Elio Ugrin, a local singer-songwriter who’s been plying his acoustic stylings throughout the year with Friday-night sets at the Daily Grind coffee shop on Portage Avenue.

Ben Waldman

If you value coverage of Manitoba’s arts scene, help us do more.
Your contribution of $10, $25 or more will allow the Free Press to deepen our reporting on theatre, dance, music and galleries while also ensuring the broadest possible audience can access our arts journalism.
BECOME AN ARTS JOURNALISM SUPPORTER Click here to learn more about the project.

History

Updated on Thursday, July 3, 2025 8:31 AM CDT: Formats text, rearranges images, adds link

Updated on Thursday, July 3, 2025 12:34 PM CDT: Updates DJ lineup and start time for Window Radio #12

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

‘She was looking to destroy me’: convicted harasser faces new charges

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

‘She was looking to destroy me’: convicted harasser faces new charges

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026

When Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton moved into the 55-plus apartment building on Stradbrook Avenue last year, she came across as “timid, soft-spoken and sensitive,” said building manager Tanya Owen.

Little did Owen know the meek-looking 58-year-old woman would soon turn her life and the lives of many of her tenants upside down and threaten her career and family.

“She was looking to destroy me for a simple tenant disagreement,” Owen said Thursday.

Court records show Ciochon-Newton was arrested earlier this month and charged with seven counts of criminal harassment, two counts of uttering threats and one count each of fraud, breaking and entering, attempting to obstruct justice, intimidation of a justice official, mischief and defamatory libel.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026

Desperate Poilievre wants Canadians to believe the sky is falling when it’s just cloudy outside

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Preview

Desperate Poilievre wants Canadians to believe the sky is falling when it’s just cloudy outside

Tom Brodbeck 5 minute read Yesterday at 12:47 PM CDT

Pierre Poilievre has a problem.

Canadians just don’t seem to be paying much attention to him anymore.

So, naturally, the Conservative Opposition leader has decided to turn up the volume.

At a recent party caucus retreat in Penticton, B.C., Poilievre delivered the familiar message: Canada is in trouble, Canadians are hurting and the Liberal government is making everything worse.

Read
Yesterday at 12:47 PM CDT

Family account spiced with magic realism, geopolitical intrigue and a ghost story

Reviewed by Zilla Jones 4 minute read Preview

Family account spiced with magic realism, geopolitical intrigue and a ghost story

Reviewed by Zilla Jones 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

Tom Lin’s second novel Babylon, South Dakota moves beyond a historical account of an immigrant family’s struggle, delightfully blending and bending genres.

Lin is a Chinese-born novelist whose family emigrated to the U.S. when he was four years old. His debut novel, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, making him the youngest ever recipient of that award. He earned a PhD in English from the University of California Davis and is currently an assistant professor of English and creative writing at the University of Iowa.

Babylon, South Dakota takes place in an unspecified time period that can be understood to be during the Mao era — likely the 1950s or ’60s. A young Chinese couple, the Hsuis, immigrate to the rural community that gives the book its title. They take the names Saul and Mei and settle on a 160-acre homestead left to them by a distant relative.

Saul’s dream is to breed and sell chrysanthemums from seeds he brought from China, while Mei wants to raise livestock. They speak no English, know nothing of life in the United States, are unprepared for the harshness of winter and the isolation of the farm and bring nothing with them except some gold, which Mei hides around the house for emergencies. Their only link to the outside world is a discarded and marginally functioning TV set, which Saul rescues and rigs up.

Read
2:01 AM CDT

A life’s story: activist, educator, organizer knew the true meaning of community

Janine LeGal 7 minute read Preview

A life’s story: activist, educator, organizer knew the true meaning of community

Janine LeGal 7 minute read 3:00 AM CDT

Somewhere between a love for sharing stories and a love of community connections, Michael (Mike) Maunder lived his life. Giving voice to people and neighbourhoods was a passion for the natural-born community organizer.

An author, teacher and principal, Maunder lived in a one-bedroom apartment in West Broadway and devoted himself to community development, education and neighbourhood renewal.

He maintained a connection with Augustine United Church, whose commitment to social justice he appreciated, volunteered at the Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre, and found comfort in a Buddhist prayer community.

Maunder died on July 15 at the age of 80.

Read
3:00 AM CDT

Day 1 of Jets training camp in the books with pairings essentially cemented

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

Day 1 of Jets training camp in the books with pairings essentially cemented

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026

Nearly six minutes into his question-and-answer session, Scott Arniel took a welcome detour from the news of the day.

After exhausting the discussion around the goalie who wasn’t in training camp, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets finally got a query about the line combinations and defensive pairings that were unveiled in training camp.

And unlike past years, when exhibition games were more frequent and the training camp wasn’t this condensed, Arniel conceded these groupings were intentional and were likely staying together for some time.

The expansion to an 84-game regular season brings with it a reduction to four pre-season games and a much shorter training camp, which could limit the amount of experimentation that Arniel can do during the next two weeks.

Read
Thursday, Sep. 17, 2026

Give-and-take relationship of Roman leaders takes centre stage in Harris’s historical fiction

Reviewed by Kathryne Cardwell 4 minute read Preview

Give-and-take relationship of Roman leaders takes centre stage in Harris’s historical fiction

Reviewed by Kathryne Cardwell 4 minute read 2:01 AM CDT

British novelist Robert Harris’s latest work is a reflection on tyranny, corruption and betrayal among all-powerful political leaders.

You might be forgiven for thinking it’s a contemporary thriller — it’s actually historical fiction set in ancient Rome.

A former BBC journalist, Harris debuted as a novelist in 1992 with Fatherland, an alternative history where Nazi Germany won the Second World War.

Since then, the prolific author has become best-known for his works of historical fiction, especially his ancient Rome trilogy released from 2006-2015 and the novel Conclave, which was published in 2016 and was made into the film of the same name in 2024.

Read
2:01 AM CDT