Skip to content

Entertainment Year in Review - July to Dec.

Some of the top entertainment stories of the second half of 2017.
10014781_web1_180111-OMH-entyir_1

Some of the top entertainment stories of the second half of 2017.

July 6

The Showcase Gallery was displaying a Canada 150 theme with everything from paintings to a Canada cake. “This is an unusual year. We get together as a guild and we talked at a meeting a few months ago about how this is Canada’s 150th ‘birthday’ [since confederation] and … we didn’t have any solo artist to go in there in July, so we decided to do this as a group show,” said manager Leslie Ginther.

July 27

The theme for the Cariboo Artists’ Guild’s 37th Annual Fine Art Show & Sale fitting was motion, according to organizer Kathy Crawshay. They thought about cancelling the show but she said artists evacuated with their art, highlighting how important it was to them.

Aug. 3

The Newman & Wright Theatre Company was set to bring Theatre Royal of Barkerville to 100 Mile House for a benefit concert. “When the fires started we thought, we’re not firefighters and we’re not police officers, but what we can do is entertain people,” said producer Richard Wright.

Aug. 10

Writer Sam Blondahl was ready to come to 100 Mile House to sign his newly released Homo Superior & Collected Works. The South Cariboo local said, “this anthology was a work of many years of short stories coming together.

Aug. 17

The Theatre Royal show raised over $9,000 with more than 330 people in attendance. “Fantastic. Just unbelievable. The show itself, the Theatre Royal Group, Richard Wright and Amy Newman, tremendous show. The crowd loved them,” according to organizer Christ Nickless. Local band Front Porch also performed and RBC had a van giving out pop and chips by donation.

Aug. 24

The South Cariboo Summer Festival was to be turned into a community celebration. “We would like to thank so many people that have helped with these trying times. Due to the wide variety of volunteers, firefighters, RCMP, Emergency Social Services, neighbours helping neighbours, we have decided to have an event for the community,” said Shelly Morton, executive director for the Chamber of Commerce.

Aug. 31

The regularly held ghost hunt at the 108 Heritage Site was preparing to use their next event to raise money for the 108 Mile Fire Department. “Talking to friends in the fire department, they said they had noticed that during the fires they were lacking lots of different types of firefighting equipment that they just did not have money for.”

Sept. 7

Katie Kidwell’s bird art flocked to the Parkside Art Gallery in a show titled The Little Birds that Fly. “For me, it’s not a hard stretch to think that paintings and poetry and music and stories can all go together.”

Sept. 14

The 108 Ghost walk raised $1,060 for the 108 fire department and had an unusual photo. “I’ve never seen a photograph like that before with my own eyes taken by someone who is on the tour,” said Ghost Walk organizer Dave Scott.

Sept. 21

The Showcase Gallery was a menagerie of ducks, dogs, horses and more. The paintings were voted People’s Choice award winners from the Cariboo Artists’ Guild Annual Fine Art Show & Sale held at Parkside Art Gallery. This year’s winner was Sheryl Fremlin’s Horsepower.

Sept. 28

Comic Leland Klassen came to perform at the South Cariboo theatre for a free to attend show organized by the Cariboo Christion Life Fellowship.

Oct. 5

Cindy Wickingstad’s work was featured in the Showcase Gallery. “My parents loved art and we went to galleries on trips and I think you look at other peoples’ artwork and you can’t afford it so you think ‘I can do that’ and then you realize it was difficult.”

Oct. 12

The next exhibit coming up at the Parkside Art Gallery was of handmade clothing, including everything from felt skirts and jackets to raw wool.

“Forty-two years ago I saw a lady spinning wool and I thought that’s what I’m supposed to do. I haven’t stopped,” said Kathy Mouat, one of the artists.

Oct. 19

Bruce Fraser was coming to 100 Mile for a book signing for Noah’s Raven, which tells the story of Fred Scully, a newly minted journalist from Atlanta who stumbles onto a political scandal when he overhears a Republican character discussing the natural gas reserves he’s found in the Chilcotin.

Oct. 26

Chris Czajkowski was coming to 100 Mile House for a book signing and slideshow for Harry’s (Czajkowski’s dog) memoir.

Harry followed in Lonesome’s pawprints, the first of Czajkowski’s pack to put paw to print.

Nov. 2

Chris Harris was showing his film entitled Chilcotin Ark on several occasions at the Parkside Art Gallery.

“The Chilcotin Ark is a relatively new phenomenon and it was brought to the attention of the world for the first time in my most recent book publication … The Cariboo Chilcotin Coast.

Nov. 9

Brenda Bolton offered her watercolour paintings of remote locations up for viewing at the Showcase Art Gallery. “Rarely does the finished painting look like the reference and that makes me happy,” she explained.

“My goal is to create the illusion of realism while leaning more towards the impressionistic.

Nov. 16

The Chris Harris Gallery presented a new book titled Powered by Love. Writer Joanna Henry and photographer Alexis MacDonald travelled through eight different African countries interviewing grandmothers who were left to look after their grandchildren orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Nov. 23

A benefit concert hosted and organized by Alamaz Durand inside the Evangelical Free Church raised $600 for the Red Cross. “After the summer we had, I thought it best.”

Nov. 30

Twenty-one performers showed off their musical and spoken word talents at the annual Canada Music Week Recital. It featured 17 Canadian pieces out of 42 performances, with performers ranging from five to 18, and was the best one yet, according to organizer Ginny-Lou Alexander.

Dec. 7

The annual Eclectica Community Choir Winter Concert, Songs for a Winter Night, so-named from the popular seasonal song written by Gordon Lightfoot, was set to feature music from around the world and some even in foreign languages.

Dec. 14

Neil Sterritt was coming to 100 Mile House for a book signing of his book Mapping My Way Home: A Gitxsan History. Sterritt, who says it took him about 10 years to research and write the book, would go on to win the Roderick Haig-Brown Gold Medal award.

Dec. 21

The South Cariboo was bustling with school concerts including Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School, 100 Mile House Elementary, Lac la Hache Elementary, Forest Grove Elementary, Mile 108 Elementary and Horse Lake Elementary.

Dec. 28

New Years parties were being held by community groups and volunteers in Interlakes and Forest Grove.