What’s up

Connection: Recent Work from Artist Moms 2.0

• Community Art Gallery at the Pavilion, Assiniboine Park, 55 Pavilion Cres.
• Artist talk Saturday, 2 p.m.
• Free

What does it mean to mother in a time of global, social and environmental uncertainty? What does it mean to be the village?

This group exhibition featuring 20 Winnipeg artist mothers affiliated with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art connects the individual experiences of motherhood with broader concerns, exploring themes of memory, nostalgia, grief, loss and care through embroidery, painting, printmaking, poetry, sculpture, installation and mixed media.

“My work is both personal and political, concerned not only with our responsibilities to our own families but also with what it means to be a caregiver in a world threatened by greed, violence and environmental harm,” said artist and group organizer Allison Moore in a release.

The gallery will host a series of artist talks on Saturdays, Oct. 3, 17 and 24, from 2 to 4 p.m. Connection is on view until Nov. 22.

— Jen Zoratti

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Six Pines Haunted Attractions

• 69058 Sturgeon Rd., four kilometres north of the Perimeter
• Opens tomorrow, runs to Oct. 31, from 7 p.m. onwards

Tickets start at $50.53 from sixpineshaunted.com (all tickets and fees are non-refundable)

Prepare to hear bone-chilling screams resound across farm fields when dusk falls every Thursday to Saturday (plus bonus day Wednesday, Oct. 28 ) as Six Pines Haunted Attractions makes a gruesome return to the Thevenot family farmyard this month.

Promising to bring more terrifying moments than ever before, the Fear by Night experience features the return of the sinister Lilyfield Asylum in the infamous Barn of Doom, not-so-funfair Carnevil, populated by ghoulish circus clowns with a macabre sense of humour, and the strange and unsettling world of Koraline, where nothing is what it seems.

If you’re after a less chilling affair, opt for the family-friendly Ghoul Flashlight Haunt, designed for younger visitors and those who prefer milder scares and still want to experience an eerie and disturbing atmosphere. It’s a no-fear way to walk through and marvel at the incredibly detailed haunts minus all the horror. Just remember to bring your own torches.

Available on Saturdays and Sundays — Oct. 17, 18, 24, 25, 31 from 2-5 p.m. — families are welcome wander through the different scenarios at their own pace. Fog, music, scents, lighting effects and creepy props are all present and correct, without the addition of actors wandering around the darkly lit rooms ready to scare the living daylights out of visitors.

— AV Kitching

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Starpainter, Sam Singer, Carter Felker

• Sidestage, 700 Osborne St.
• Tonight, 8 p.m. $15 advance, $20 door

Audiences are in for a taste of Wild Rose Country tonight, when Lethbridge, Alta.-based folk-rockers Starpainter and Calgary’s Carter Felker roll into Sidestage.

Starpainter are on tour supporting the band’s new LP Cayenne Flowerbed, its third since 2020. The new record features lush arrangements, reverb drenched vocals, and expansive songwriting that evoke wide open prairie skies.

Felker, meanwhile, has made a name for himself as a writer of consistently, cleverly heartbreaking songs. His latest LP, 2025’s Loser, makes a good argument that Felker is emerging as one of the best in the West in that category, if not the country itself.

Sam Singer provides local support, bringing his own brand of sultry songwriting and subdued swagger to the South Osborne stage once again, having recently wowed the crowd opening for the Deep Dark Woods at the Park Theatre early in September.

— Sheldon Birnie

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JUG, Prairie and Blazing Star at Heavenly Weekend

• Public Domain, 633 Portage Ave.
• Tonight, 7:30 p.m.
• Tickets: $19 at reallovewpg.com

Heavenly Weekend kicks off tonight at Public Domain with a thrashy triple bill of local acts. Hardcore group Jug — fresh off its first official LP, Head — has developed a cult following in Winnipeg as much for its sound as for one piece of oversized merch: a giant red baseball cap bearing the band’s name.

“The hat was gifted to me by friend Sarah because she remembers me telling her nothing is funnier than an oversized hat,” says vocalist Bret Parenteau, who plays with Graham McPherson, Spencer Chambers, Marc Leneveu and Richard Hart III. Keep your head up in the pit: the hat gets tossed into the crowd during every Jug set.

Listening to Prairie, audiences have been compelled to gaze at their shoes and also outward at this rising city band’s swirling soundscapes, but the group’s latest single — Grind My Teeth When I’m Asleep — showcases a throwback, garage rock sound.

Last on the bill is Blazing Star, a new group heavily inspired by Dinosaur Jr., featuring members of Winnipeg bands Jamboree and Nuclear Man. It’s the second show for the quartet, who feature Jamboree’s Sky Parenteau — Bret’s younger brother — on bass and lead vocals.

Heavenly Weekend continues on Friday at the Handsome Daughter, with Leon’s Getting Larger, Cold, Steadfast and Toronto’s Ethereal Tomb visiting. Friday at Public Domain, locals Jupiter Meltdown take the stage opening for London, Ont., rockers Status/Non-Status and legacy indie act By Divine Right.

Saturday night highlights for the festival include Winnipeg post-punkers Bland playing with Vancouver’s Still Depths and Austin, Tex. alt-rap-grimecore weirdos haha Laughing, who transformed into electric slugs in yellow rainslickers at 2024’s Real Love Summer Fest.

Individual show tickets start at $19 advance at reallovewpg.com, or gain access to every Heavenly Weekend show for $74.

— Ben Waldman

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