What’s up: Steve Earle’s ‘Alone Again’ tour, beer fest, battleground cinema and more

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This article was published 14/08/2024 (800 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Beer Festival

Saturday Aug. 17, 5-7 p.m. and 7:30-9:30 p.m.

Fort Gibraltar, 866 Rue Saint Joseph

Tickets: $50 plus taxes at wfp.to/CTQ

Sunny skies and temps in the mid-20s on Saturday should make for ideal conditions for sipping all manner of brews and more at the seventh annual Winnipeg Beer Festival. (That forecast will be a relief to organizers, who had to postpone the fest back in June, owing to inclement weather.)

Saturday’s fest takes place at Fort Gibraltar, and will feature a great many Manitoba brewers (as well as producers of cider, wine and more) pouring more than 70 products in total. Among local brewers slinging lagers and ales are One Great City, Kilter, Trans Canada, Nonsuch, Brazen Hall, Good Neighbour and Brandon’s Black Wheat, as well as cider from Winkler’s Dead Horse, wine and more from Shrugging Doctor, spirits from Capital K and non-alcoholic options from the Sobr Market.

Tickets for each of the two time slots at the Winnipeg Beer Festival (5-7 p.m. and 7:30-9:30 p.m.) are $50 plus taxes and include all samples. Food trucks will be on hand with grub available for purchase, while DJs keep the party hopping with some fun tunes.

For more information and to buy tickets, see wpgbeerfestival.com.

— Ben Sigurdson

Transpo–Expo

Saturday, Aug. 17, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Lower Fort Garry National Historic Site, 5925 Provincial Trunk Hwy 9

Regular admission fees

Explore the history of transportation at Lower Fort Garry with Transpo-Expo. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., visitors can enjoy demonstrations and hands-on workshops showcasing the evolution of transportation in Western Canada.

Workshops include canoe- and paddle-making by historian Mark Blieske, Red River cart construction with Jerome Armand, and moccasin-making with Indigenous storyteller Gloria Beckman (Niska).

A classic car show presented by the Mid-Canada Mini Group will be on display, along with 1920s-themed activities like mini golf, a concession stand, and live jazz performances by the Ian Cherry Jazz Band from noon to 3 p.m.

Kids can enjoy face-painting, a plush horse racetrack and the Ultimate Voyageur Obstacle Course. The Lower Fort Garry restaurant will be open for breakfast and lunch inside the visitor reception centre.

Workshops and the concession stand will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. No advance tickets are required.

— Thandi Vera

Steve Earle brings Alone Again tour to Winnipeg

Sunday, Aug. 18, 7:30 p.m.

Burton Cummings Theatre

Tickets: $52.75 to $71.50 at Ticketmaster

He’s a singer-songwriter, an author and an actor. But first and foremost, Steve Earle is a storyteller, telling tales of moonshine runners, down-on-their-luck wanderers and San Antonio girls.

The Texas-raised troubadour has left an indelible mark on Americana music with his particular brand of outlaw country; his 1988 hit Copperhead Road was made Tennessee’s official state song in 2023, and the likes of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris and the Pretenders have all recorded his songs.

And at 69, he’s still hitting the road. Last month, Earle released Alone Again (Live), a live album featuring stripped-down versions of 15 crowd-pleasing classics — including The Galway Girl, Guitar Town and, of course, Copperhead Road — recorded during the 2023 legs of his solo acoustic Alone Again tour.

Note: tickets for this show are limited, and seats are mostly in the balconies.

— Jen Zoratti

Battleground cinema

Dave Barber Cinematheque

100 Arthur St.

Tickets: $10.50 general, $8 students and seniors, $6.50 members

Before director Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border won international acclaim last fall, the black-and-white drama about a family of Syrian refugees making their way into Europe earned rebukes from hard-right politicians in her home country of Poland.

The Hollywood Reporter called the film — set along the Poland-Belarus border — a devastating dramatic triumph. Meanwhile, former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro called Holland — best known for directing 1990’s Holocaust drama Europa, Europa — a Stalinist, and compared Green Border to “Nazi propaganda,” leading the Oscar-nominated director to file a still-pending defamation suit.

As various refugee crises continue around the world, Holland’s timely, affective film is screening this week at the Dave Barber Cinematheque (to Aug. 21). Another wartime picture, George Roy Hill’s 1972 adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, is running for one night only Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. as part of comedian Kevin McDonald’s McDonald at the Movies series.

— Ben Waldman

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