There’s lots of variety in this week’s roundup! You can take the kids to a musical in Kemptville or Greely, try your freestyle ski moves at Tremblant, check out digital art and music in Kingston, catch a concert in Burnstown, or hear tango tunes in Smiths Falls. Happy travels!
Hear Jesse Cook or the Jim Cuddy Band in Brockville
Copyright JimCuddy.com 2019. Used with permission.
Two big name acts will be on stage at the Brockville Arts Centre this week. First up is Juno-winning world music guitarist Jesse Cook, on Wednesday, March 27. Speaking of Junos, multiple Juno winner and Blue Rodeo frontman Jim Cuddy will be on stage with the Jim Cuddy Band on Thursday, March 28, with special guest Sam Polley.
Compete in a car rally in Chesterville
On Saturday, March 31, the Chesterville and District Lions Club is holding its 30th annual Car Rally and Chicken BBQ. Registration starts at the Legion at 11am and the event starts at noon.
Browse for new-to-you treasures in Carleton Place
The Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum’s popular Junk and Disorderly Sale will likely lure lots of bargain hunters to Carleton Place on March 30 and 31 to hunt for gently used gems.
Get travel ideas in Ottawa
Planning your summer vacation? More than 200 exhibitors will be on hand with ideas at the Travel and Vacation Show at the Shaw Centre in downtown Ottawa (March 30 and 31). There will also be cooking demonstrations, seminars and trip giveaways.
Warm up with tango music in Smiths Falls
Do you feel like winter will never end? The Payadora Tango Ensemble’s show at the Station Theatre in Smiths Falls on Friday, March 29, just might be the antidote. The members of Toronto-based Payadora—who have backgrounds in genres as diverse as classical, jazz and Eastern European folk music—play both original compositions and their own arrangements of Argentinean folk music and tango.
Get inspired for summer at two expos in Kingston
This weekend the Kingston Home and Garden Show (March 29 to 31) is being held at the same location—the Kingston 1000 Islands Sportsplex—as the Kingston Boat and Recreation Show (same dates), and you get two-for-one admission to both events. Together, the two shows feature about 150 exhibitors selling everything from roofing to kayaks; kids are admitted free.
See figure skaters perform Disney favourites in Renfrew
The Renfrew Skating Club’s annual show is happening on Saturday, March 30, at the Ma-Te-Way Activity Centre in Renfrew. This year’s theme is “Disney on Ice Classics,” and admission is free.
Catch some standup comedy in Almomte
The Rash Comedy Bash at the Almonte Old Town Hall on Friday, March 29, features a big lineup of standup comics who have appeared at Yuk Yuk’s, Absolute Comedy, the Winnipeg Comedy Festival and elsewhere. Host Rachelle Elie will introduce comics Don Kelly, Jenn Labelle and more, and Johnny Vegas will entertain the crowd with Rat Pack standards and other classics before the show (see video above).
See a family show in Kemptville, Greely or Ottawa
The Kemptville Youth Musical Theatre Company presents a musical every spring with a big cast of actors aged 12 to 19. This year’s show is Newsies: The Musical, a Broadway hit based on the real-life strike by young newspaper delivery boys in 1899. The New York City kids walked off the job when publishing magnate Joseph Pulitzer started charging the delivery boys—many of them penniless orphans— more for the papers they delivered. The show runs on weekends from March 30 to April 14 at the Urbandale Arts Centre (inside the North Grenville Municipal Centre) in Kemptville.
The NAC Orchestra is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the beloved 1939 movie version of The Wizard of Oz by screening the movie while playing the soundtrack live (March 28 to 30).
The Greely Players are presenting Shrek: The Musical—a play about everyone’s favourite ogre and his friend, Donkey—from March 27 to 31.
Eat soup for a good cause in Almonte
Photo by Nathalie Jolie on Unsplash.
The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum is holding its annual Soup for Thought fundraiser on Saturday, March 30. For $25, you can enjoy a bowl of soup made by one of several local chefs, and you get to keep the stoneware bowl (made by members of the Almonte Potters’ Guild). (Kids can eat for $10, but they don’t get a bowl.) Tickets are available from several Almonte businesses.
Enjoy dinner and a concert in Burnstown
The Neat Cafe in Burnstown is presenting Murray Lightburn, lead singer and main songwriter for The Dears, in a solo show on Friday, March 29. You can combine dinner and the concert, or come for the show only.
Browse for crafts in Ottawa and Gatineau
Travel back to the 1970s in Brockville
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Pixabay image by AlexAntropov86.
Grab your bell bottoms and put on your mood ring: The Brockville Museum is hosting the first of three counterculture Museum@Night events on Friday, March 29. Designed to catapult visitors back to the age of disco, the Montreal Olympics and Watergate, 70s Throwback night offers the chance to explore the museum after hours while listening to a DJ spin ’70s tunes. You can play a vintage board game, learn macramé or make a pet rock, all while discovering Brockville’s history.
Enjoy maple fun in Aylmer or Prince Edward County
Rue Principale in downtown Aylmer is the scene for Le Vieux-Aylmer se Sucre le Bec (March 30 and 31), a weekend-long celebration of all things maple. Enjoy live entertainment as you shop for syrup and more.
During Maple in the County (March 30 and 31), a maple syrup festival in Prince Edward County, you can make s’mores, visit a winery, pet farm animals, take in a lumberjack show and, of course, taste and buy maple syrup, sugar, candy, tarts and lots of other sweet goodies.
Hear Anderson Cooper in Ottawa
You’ve seen him on TV; now you can see him at the NAC. On Sunday, March 31, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper will be on stage for one night only. Likely topics include the news (of course) and, perhaps, his childhood with mother Gloria Vanderbilt (which was the subject of his 2016 book, The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss). This one is probably only for superfans, as tickets start at around $100 each!
Check out digital art and music in Kingston
Do you like your culture on the cutting edge? Then the place to be this weekend is Kingston, where the city’s second annual Electric Circuits festival of electronic music and digital art will be taking place at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday, March 29, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre on Saturday, March 30.
Freestyle your heart out at Tremblant
Photo courtesy of Tremblant.
Is trick skiing your thing? Then Jamigos weekend at Tremblant (March 30 and 31) will be right up your alley (or down your slope). Held at the resort’s Adrenaline Park, the friendly spring skiing competition is packed with freestyle and jam sessions, DJ tunes, and more.
See a thought-provoking play in Ottawa
This week is your last chance to catch Angélique, a play running at the NAC until Sunday, March 31. Created by the late playwright Lorena Gale, it tells the story of an enslaved woman accused of setting fire to Montreal in 1734—and shines light on themes of modern racism in the process.
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