What’s up: Corn & apple fest; Jennifer Jones, Cato Cormier, Deftones, Bonjour Tristesse

Morden Corn & Apple Festival

• Morden
• Friday to Sunday
• Free

What began as a community celebration for Canada’s Centennial in 1967 is now Manitoba’s largest street festival, bringing 80,000 people to Morden for a quintessential late-summer experience.

The Morden Corn & Apple Festival is about more than corn and apples, although you can definitely enjoy both (don’t miss the free corn area). You can also enjoy street vendors, a flea market, a midway, a farmers market, kids’ arts and crafts, beer gardens and a short-film festival — “something for everyone” may be an overused phrase, but this festival truly has it all.

There’s also a healthy live music component at Morden Corn & Apple. Canadian country singer-songwriter (and former hockey player) Chad Brownlee will headline Friday night, while Ontario tribute act Big Shiny ’90s will be the main act Saturday night. Southern Manitoba’s country duo Brothers Keep and Winkler punks Monochromatics will open on Friday and Saturday respectively.

Visit cornandapple.com for full festival details.

— Jen Zoratti

 

An evening with Jennifer Jones

• McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park (1120 Grant Ave.)
• Monday, 7 p.m.
• Free

While in high school at Windsor Park Collegiate, Jennifer Jones had to make a decision between pursuing volleyball and curling. Choosing the latter, Jones would slide into the history books as one of the world’s curling greats.

The 51-year-old Jones is a two-time world champion, an Olympic gold medalist (where her crew went undefeated in 2014), won the Manitoba women’s title nine times and the Canadian championship six times, including a three-peat from 2008 to 2010. Most recently, she coached longtime rival Rachel Homan at the 2025 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, where Homan’s crew once again won the top prize.

Now Jones is sharing her story about life on the ice and as a lawyer, mother, wife and motivational speaker. She launches her memoir Rock Star: My Life Off and On the Ice Monday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson, where she’ll be joined in conversation by 103.1 Virgin Radio host Ace Burpee.

The book, co-written by curling writer Bob Weeks and published by HarperCollins, chronicles Jones’ early years learning how to curl and her rise through the ranks while balancing a family, a law career and her work as a motivational speaker and corporate leader.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

Jones will read from and discuss her memoir before signing copies of Rock Star. Admission is free, and the launch will be streamed on McNally Robinson’s YouTube channel.

— Ben Sigurdson

 

Cato Cormier walking tour of South Osborne

• Osborne Street at Hethrington Avenue
• Wednesday, 6 p.m.
• Free

Haven’t heard of Cato Cormier just yet?

That may be because the visual artist (who uses she/they pronouns) is newer here — they “grew up in the Montréal suburbs, then here and there, before putting down roots in Winnipeg,” according to their bio.

With the monochromatic precision of Matisse, and the whimsy of Robert Crumb, Cormier’s comic-like illustrations colour the Théâtre Cercle Molière’s 2024-2025 branding and lobby.

Their self-described “eccentric humanoids” also decorate South Osborne in 22 new street banners that capture charming snippets of everyday life and celebrate the blossoming neighbourhood.

Commissioned through a partnership between the Winnipeg Arts Council and the South Osborne BIZ, the playful banners will be unveiled on Wednesday through an artist-led walking tour — which gives insight into the work and, no doubt, into a neighbourhood that’s seen much cultural growth in recent years.

— Conrad Sweatman

 

Deftones

• Canada Life Centre, 300 Portage Ave.
• Wednesday, 7 p.m.
• Tickets $53-$160 at Ticketmaster

Deftones are heading out on tour with a brand new album and a brand new generation of listeners.

After rising to prominence during the heyday of late ‘90s nu metal, the band from Sacramento, Calif., is once again benefitting from the genre’s modern gen-Z resurgence fuelled by social media.

The group releases its 10th studio album, Private Music, on Friday and begins its North American tour the same day.

Deftones — Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter, Frank Delgado, Fred Sablan and Abe Cunningham — last performed in Winnipeg at the Burton Cummings Theatre in 2007.

Wednesday’s show features supporting acts Phantogram and the Barbarians of California.

— Eva Wasney

 

Bonjour Tristesse

• Dave Barber Cinematheque, 100 Arthur St.
• Friday to Sept. 3
• Tickets $7.50-$11.50 at davebarbercinematheque.com

Canadian writer Durga Chew-Bose makes her feature directing debut with this drama of seasonal interruption, an adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novella of the same name.

It’s not the first time the story has made the transition from page to screen: in 1958, French New Wave icon Jean Seberg was cast by Otto Preminger’s Cecile, the 17-year-old daughter of David Niven’s widower Raymond, whose ongoing romance is challenged by the reappearance of Anne (Deborah Kerr), an old friend of Cecile’s late mother.

For this adaptation, which premiered at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Chew-Bose cast her former babysitting charge Lily McInerny to take on the role of Cecile, reports i-D magazine. While Claes Bang as Raymond and Chloë Sevigny as Anne provide the cast with veteran steadiness, the 26-year-old McInerny is tasked with playing the film’s de facto emotional fulcrum: Sagan, who died in 2004, wrote the original text when she was still a teenage girl herself.

The Free Press’s Alison Gillmor expressed that “there’s not much sense of the conflicts running underneath” Chew-Bose’s elegant production design and carefully composed visuals.

Despite the French Riviera setting, and the film’s title, Gillmor points out that the film’s international cast speaks mostly English.

“Melancholy rather than tragic, Chew-Bose’s debut is promising in some ways, a letdown in others,” Gillmor wrote, praising the film’s ability to provoke “summerhouse envy.”

“Still, ennui never looked so good.”

— Ben Waldman