What’s up NYE

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/12/2023 (645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ring in the New Year with local brews

Sunday
Various locations

Local craft breweries in Winnipeg and beyond are toasting the new year with dinners, dance parties and more.

Get your New Year’s Eve started in the afternoon at Sookrams Brewing Co. (479-B Warsaw Ave.), which is hosting chef Liam Martin for a pop-up where he’ll be cooking up tacos, short rib sloppy joes, and mac and cheese featuring Manitoba ingredients from 2 p.m. until he sells out. Sookram’s, meanwhile, will be featuring $5 pours of its core beers, as well as a new cask. There’s no cost to pop by; food items are available for purchase.

Devil May Care Brewing Co. (155-A Fort St.) will celebrate with Freebirds Kitchen, who will be cooking up a prime rib dinner with sides and dessert to go with the live local music, festive beers, bubbly at midnight and more. There’s no cover, but if you want to tuck into some delicious prime rib it’s $50 — reserve your spot at wfp.to/jBR.

Up in Gimli, Interlake Brewing Co. (72 1st Ave.) is doing a prime rib meal of its own from 6 to 9 p.m. featuring shrimp cocktail, caesar salad, prime rib and cheesecake. There will also be a specialty cask, bubbly at midnight and more. Tickets are $40 per person, and a $10 deposit is required; call 204-642-8313 to reserve.

Nonsuch Brewing Co. (125 Pacific Ave.) has two seatings for a four-course dinner — one from 5 to 7 p.m. and another from 8 to 10 p.m. — which will feature new and cellared beers, New Year’s Eve-themed cocktails and more. Tickets are $283.20 plus taxes and fees per pair, and include dinner, drinks and gratuity, plus those in attendance will also get a discount on to-go beer. For more and to buy tickets see ​​wfp.to/jBc.

And at Little Brown Jug (336 William Ave.), they’re ringing in the New Year with a house and techno party with the folks from Memetic, featuring music from Stix, Zanz, Shael and Waker and visuals by Theo Tzu. Tickets are $37 plus fees and are available at wfp.to/jBa.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Suit up for child-friendly formal extravaganza

Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Children’s Museum, 45 Forks Market Rd,
Tickets: $12.25 per person, applies to visitors ages one and up

Who says NYE parties are just for grown-ups?

Kids can have as good a shindig, albeit a little earlier of course, at the Children’s Museum’s annual Top Hats & Tiaras party. Get dressed in your fanciest frocks and smartest tuxedos for an afternoon of family-friendly fun.

There’ll be craft activities, balloon creations and live musical entertainment to celebrate the end of 2023. At noon, raise your glasses of ginger ale and be the first to toast in 2024 with festive ballon countdown led by MC Drew Kozub from Kiss 102.3. Commemorate the occasion and get a souvenir photo from Pixels and Giggles, who will be there with their cameras.

Note: Attendance at this event constitutes guardian consent of participants to be photographed and/or videotaped and images to be used by the Manitoba Children’s Museum for promotional purposes. More information can be found online.

— AV Kitching

 

New Year’s Day at The Forks

Monday, Jan. 1; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Various locations
Visit theforks.com for a full schedule

The Forks has foregone its annual New Year’s Eve party for an array of free family-friendly events on New Year’s Day.

Yoga and fitness classes begin at 10 a.m. and run all day long in Room 201 (upstairs in The Forks Market); space is limited and reservations are recommended. Find board games, crafts and a mini puppet theatre in the EQ3 Lounge across the hall.

Downstairs, local drag performers will be entertaining diners in the food hall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. during a brunch hosted by Synonym and the Tallest Poppy. The former Sherbrook Street restaurant will be serving signature menu items out of Passerby cocktail lounge.

Folklorama performance groups Son D’Arranke and Drum Café will share Latin and West African entertainment in the market’s south aisle from 2 to 3 p.m.

More music can be found outside the Johnston Terminal, with concerts courtesy of Manitoba Music from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Al Simmons will also be on hand to offer visitors tours of his “Sounds Crazy Caboose” warming hut.

Skate on the recently opened canopy rink, explore the grounds and take part in skating, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing workshops.

Indigenous storytelling and children’s programming takes place in the teepee near the port and the Agowiidiwinan Centre.

— Eva Wasney

 

New Year’s Day WackyDoodle Dance Party

Monday, Jan. 1, 1:30 p.m.
Park Theatre
Advance tickets $5 plus fees, two and under free

Shimmy, strut and shake your way into a new year at this high-energy rager that begins after lunch and will be done before dinner.

DJs Co-op & K-Chedda — a.k.a. husband-and-wife duo Tim Hoover and Karli Colpitts — will be spinning the fam-friendly jams, drawing upon their combined 25 years of DJing experience. A full bar service will be available for grown-ups and juice boxes for tiny dancers.

This is the second-annual New Year’s Day WackyDoodle Dance Party, but the longtime Winnipeg party-starters Hoover and Colpitts have been hosting these popular mini-raves for kids for other holidays, such as Halloween, as well. “We wanted to do something that would be fun for us, for our family and for other folks who have kids,” Hoover told the Free Press in March.

Visit wackydoodle.ca for more information and tickets. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door subject to capacity.

— Jen Zoratti

 

Kentucky Headhunters headline Indigenous NYE social

Sunday, 7 p.m.
RBC Convention Centre
Social tickets $75; gala $200; table of 10 $2,000; VIP table of 10 $2,500.

The last concert of 2023 and the first concert of 2024 will take over the RBC Convention Centre on New Year’s Eve when Berens River First Nation hosts the Manitoba Indigenous New Year’s Eve gala, which goes from 7 to 10 p.m. It includes a four-course dinner and performances by southern rockers the Kentucky Headhunters, as well as Manitoba country artists Desiree Dorion and Nelson Little.

A social follows, with two longtime Indigenous artists from Manitoba, Ernest Monias and the C-Weed Band, performing along with Harlequin, Brothers in Arms, the Tribal Road Band with Loretta Johnston, Mark Nabess, Mitch Daigneault, the Joe Maxim Band and the Mosquitoz with JJ Lavallee.

— Alan Small