From pancake breakfasts and a soup fest to improv theatre and an all-night arts festival, I’ve found fun around the clock for you this week. Families can head to Beckwith for a winter festival or to Cornwall for a live animal show. Music lovers can catch a show in Wakefield or Morrisburg, while movie buffs have two festivals to choose from. Happy road tripping!
Savour some soup in Kemptville
Photo by Elli O. on Unsplash.
Does winter have you craving a warming bowl of soup? Then head to Kemptville on Saturday, March 2, for TLC Soupfest, a friendly competition between 14 chefs from restaurants in Kemptville, Winchester, Cardinal, Embrun, Smiths Falls and beyond. It runs from 11am to 2pm at the North Grenville Municipal Centre. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids.
Meet authors in Gatineau and Smiths Falls
Smiths Falls novelist and inspirational speaker Eleanor M. Glenn will be reading from her new book, How Love Continues, at the Merrickville United Arts Centre on Tuesday, February 26. She will also discuss the ways she feels people can connect with their loved ones even after death. The event starts at 6:30pm.
The 29th annual Salon du livre de l’Outaouais (February 28 to March 3) at the Palais des Congrès de Gatineau celebrates authors writing in French. Featured authors include Edem Awumey, Catherine Bellemare, Nicole Bordeleau, Éric Mathieu and Marc Séguin.
Get seeds and gardening ideas in Ottawa, Brockville, Pembroke and Perth
Seedy Saturdays and Seedy Sundays, where gardeners can swap seeds and ideas, continue this weekend with events at the Ron Kolbus Centre in Britannia Park in Ottawa (March 2), the Brockville Memorial Centre (March 2), the Rankin Culture and Recreation Centre in Pembroke (March 3) and the Civitan Club in Perth (March 3).
Stay up all night in Montreal
©Nuit blanche à Montréal, Frédérique Ménard-Aubin.
Nuit Blanche returns to Montreal this weekend, beginning on Saturday, March 2, and stretching into the very wee hours of Sunday, March 3. I can’t even begin to list the huge range of very cool events and installations you can check out all over the city, ranging from ziplines and ice slides to a cider tasting, a moonlit tour of a science lab, a jewellery-making workshop, a musical hula-hoop room and karaoke on ice.
Learn about the history of Lebreton Flats at an album launch in Ottawa
Ottawa based folk-duo Silent Winters are launching their new album, The Duke Hotel, with a live show at the Gladstone Theatre in Ottawa on Tuesday, February 26. The album tells tales of the razed Lebreton Flats neighbourhood, where the Duke Hotel was a hub for Ukrainian immigrants in the 1950s. Rockers Olenka Bastian and Jonathan Chandler have moved into more acoustic territory with Silent Winters; if you enjoy music by Simon and Garfunkel, the Milk Carton Kids, and the Civil Wars, and are curious about local history, this might be right up your alley.
Enjoy a winter carnival in Beckwith
Cross-country skiing, tobogganing, snow painting, a scavenger hunt, horse-drawn sleigh/wagon rides, a tug of war and more are on the agenda at the free March Meltdown winter carnival in Beckwith Park, near Perth, on Saturday, March 2, 2019. Other fun in the area that day includes a pancake breakfast, free public skating and a chili cook-off. (Click ahead to “March” on the Lanark County Tourism site linked above to get to the information about the carnival.
Visit a sugar bush in Ottawa
A tractor-drawn wagon takes visitors into the sugar bush at The Log Farm in Ottawa.
As well as the sugar bush at the Vanier Museopark, which I mentioned last week, another urban sugar bush will be opening its doors this weekend. At The Log Farm on Cedarview Road, you can see how maple syrup is made, make taffy on snow, nibble on BeaverTails and visit the barnyard animals. It will be open on weekends until April 7, as well as on weekdays during Ontario March Break (March 11 to 15).
Try a snowmobile poker run in Yarker
The Lennox & Addington Ridge Runners are holding a snowmobiling poker run on Saturday, March 2, starting in Yarker (partway between Kingston and Napanee, north of the 401). The $25 registration fee includes a hot breakfast.
Catch a concert in Nepean, Orleans, Wakefield, Morrisburg or Cornwall
Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox is an energetic stage show that shoots listeners back and forth in musical time. The large cast of singers and musicians brings multiple decades of music to life—a little Roaring 20s jazz, some sock hop hits, a bit of Motown and much more. It’s coming to the Meridian Theatres at Centrepointe on Wednesday, February 27.
Canadian jazz artist Molly Johnson will be on stage at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Orleans on Friday, March 1. She’ll be performing songs from her new album Meaning to Tell Ya!, combining jazz with funk, soul and groove. Last I heard, tickets to this one were going quickly.
Photo courtesy of The Commotions.
The Commotions, a 12-member Ottawa soul band featuring funk and jazz players, will be playing back-to-back shows at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield this weekend (March 1 and 2).
Husband and wife JT Nero and Allison Russell are partners in Birds of Chicago, a roots duo blending country, soul, gospel and doo-wop. They’re playing the Upper Canada Playhouse in Morrisburg on Saturday, March 2.
In a Mardi Gras-themed show, popular Eastern Ontario zydeco band Mumbo Jumbo Voodoo Combo will have the Port Theatre in Cornwall rocking on Saturday, March 2.
See a movie festival in Kingston or Belleville
The world’s largest festival of Canadian movies is rolling out the red carpet this weekend. Movies screening at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival (Feburary 28 to March 3) include Firecrackers, the feature-film debut of Toronto director Jasmin Mozaffari, which follows two teenage girls yearning to escape their small town; What Is Democracy?, a documentary of big ideas by Winnipegger Astra Taylor; and three screenings of a selection of short films by local filmmakers.
Meanwhile, a few towns to the west along the 401, the Belleville Downtown DocFest (March 1 to 3) is screening more than 40 documentaries in five venues. It’s a non-competitive, non-juried event focusing on human rights, social/environmental justice, and arts and culture. Documentaries on the schedule include Playing With Fire: Trenton and the British Chemical Co., about a tragic explosion in Trenton during the First World War; and What Is Democracy?, described above.
Get close to wildlife in Cornwall
Creative Commons photo of a bobcat by Bill W Ca.
For all the animal lovers in the family, Little Ray’s Wildlife Festival at the NAV Centre in Cornwall (March 2 and 3) offers the chance to see some 30 live animals up close, including a sloth, a bobcat and an armadillo. There will also be exhibits on biodiversity, responsible care of exotic pets and other topics.
Check out “underground” art in Montreal
The free Art Souterrain exhibition—which opens on Saturday, March 2, and runs until Sunday, March 24—isn’t your typical museum show: It’s happening across six kilometres of Montreal’s Underground City, as well as in eight satellite locations. This year’s theme is “True or False,” and the exhibition features installations, sculptures, videos, photographs and performance art pieces by artists from around the world.
Watch comic actors think on their feet in Ottawa
Anything goes—theatrically, anyway—during the three days of the Ottawa Improv Festival (February 28 to March 2). Head to Arts Court to watch improvisers take suggestions from the audience and run madly off with them in all directions. And if you want to learn how to do improv yourself, there will be workshops.
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