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This article was published 22/02/2024 (595 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cold beers and hot tunes on Pritchett’s mind

Aaron Pritchett

with Matt Lang and Cody Marks

Saturday, Feb. 24, 9 p.m.

Park Theatre

Tickets $55.49 at myparktheatre.com

Solo cups and shot glasses are front-and-centre in the video for Liquored Up, Aaron Pritchett’s 2023 single and the title of his cross-Canada tour, which stops at the Park Theatre Saturday.

It’s the British Columbia country singer’s first major tour since prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said before his journey started in January that he could barely contain his excitement for a string of 32 shows, which also include concerts tonight at Dauphin’s Watson Arts Centre and The 40 nightclub in Brandon on Friday.

The 20-year veteran of Canada’s country scene — during which time he has scored four Canadian Country Music Association Awards and two Juno Award nominations — is bringing two younger compadres from the Liquored Up single, Quebec singer Matt Lang and Ontario country-rocker Cory Marks, along for the ride.

Lang’s duet with Tyler Joe Miller, Never Met a Beer, earned them a Canadian Country Music Association award nomination last year. Marks’ 2020 album, Outlaws & Outsiders, reached the top 10 on Billboard’s mainstream rock chart in the United States.

— Alan Small

 

Once more, this time in person

Thursday to Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 4 p.m.

Rachel Browne Theatre, 211 Bannatyne Ave.

Tickets $16 to $34 at Eventbrite

Choreographer Jera Wolfe is bringing his pandemic creation back to Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers (WCD), but this time audiences will be able to experience the performance in person.

Wolfe, a Toronto-based dancer, came up with the concept for Begin Again — a program that uses light and shadows to simulate physical touch between the cast of dancers — as a commission for WCD’s 2020-21 season. At the time, the dance was presented as a video, owing to public health restrictions.

Wolfe returns to Winnipeg this weekend with Begin Again, as well as an unnamed new creation.

Tonight’s show is a preview performance. Sunday’s matinée will be followed by an artist talk. Visit winnipegscontemporarydancers.ca for more information.

— Eva Wasney

 

Tétreault to talk with Free Press book club

Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Online — register at wfp.to/bookclub

Free

Métis/French-Canadian author Matthew Tétreault, who hails from Ste. Anne and now calls Winnipeg home, joins the Free Press Book Club’s next meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss his novel Hold Your Tongue.

Published in May 2023 by NeWest Press, Hold Your Tongue is set in Ste. Anne and Winnipeg, and explores what it means to be Métis and francophone in a book sprinkled with passages in French and Michif.

After learning his great-uncle has had a stroke, Richard makes his way back to the town of Ste. Anne to convey the news to his father, learning about area history and his Métis roots, family secrets and stories of the past along the way. Richard must then contemplate living in Ste. Anne versus in the city.

For the book club’s virtual meeting, Tétreault will join Free Press columnist Rebecca Chambers, Adam Araujo of McNally Robinson Booksellers and Free Press multimedia producer Nadya Pankiw. He’ll read from Hold Your Tongue, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers.

There’s no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion, and copies of the book are available to purchase at McNally Robinson. For more information and to see future book club picks, visit wfp.to/bookclub.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Polar Bear Weekend

Assiniboine Park Zoo, 2595 Roblin Blvd.

Saturday and Sunday, various times.

Full event listings at assiniboinepark.ca

Zoo admission rates: adults $24.70, children $14, under 2 free

It’s International Polar Bear day on Feb. 27, so this weekend Assiniboine Park Zoo is hosting two days of all sorts of polar bear activities, including Breakfast with Bears at the Tundra Grill where you can watch the bears as you eat (breakfast is not included with admission).

There will also be a chance to chat with the animal-care team that focuses on the bears, and polar bear-themed craft activities at the Leatherdale International Polar Bear Conservation Centre.

Most events take place Saturday and Sunday; however, the Al Simmons concert is on Saturday only (11-11.30 a.m.) and the face-painting event is only on Sunday (11 a.m. to 2 p.m.), both at Gateway to the Arctic.

— AV Kitching

 

Final days of Festival du Voyageur

To Sunday

Voyageur Park and various venues in St. Boniface

Tickets and passes at heho.ca. Voyageur passes $95; teens and seniors $65; children 6-12 ($25); 5 and under free.

There’s still one weekend left to attend the biggest kitchen party of the year and catch performances you won’t see anywhere else. Here’s a handful of highlights:

Tonight, go see Winnipeg’s blistering alt-country group Show Pony tear up the Snow Tent at 9:30 p.m.

On Friday, catch Winnipeg indie-pop purveyor Sandy Taronno (Quinzy, New Wales) at a rare solo show — well, backed by a five-piece band — at the Forest Tent at 6:15 p.m.

On Saturday Franco-Manitoban artist Rayannah and choreographer/Royal Winnipeg Ballet soloist Stephan Azulay will debut their collaborative project Compound — which features several RWB fellow company members, including Yayoi Ban, Jaimi Deleau, Joshua Hidson, Michel Lavoie, Emilie Lewis and Logan Savard — at 6:15 p.m. at Tente Rivière-Rouge.

And on Sunday, if you’ve got little voyageurs in tow, check out Micah!, the 18-year-old singer-songwriter, dancer, puppeteer and comedian who toured for nearly a decade alongside his mother, acclaimed children’s musician Madame Diva. He’s at the Snow Tent at 12:15 p.m.

Festival du Voyageur wraps up on Sunday.

— Jen Zoratti

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