Welcome to the last arts and culture column of 2024! What a year it has been.
Our little burg has been overflowing with incredible arts and culture events all year long. The Opera House is thriving, St. Paul’s Centre is bursting at the seams, Orillia Museum of Art and History is doing well, Leacock Museum is finding its place and doing some amazing programming, small galleries are busy and beautiful, our community theatre and musical groups are bustling, and innovative, passionate, creative volunteers are making our town look very, very good!
Highlights of my 2024 in arts and culture include Mariposa Folk Festival (how could I not?), downtown patio nights, live music all over town at so many venues, the Orillia Regional Arts and Heritage Awards, Mariposa Arts Theatre’s production of Gypsy, the Downtown Orillia Legacy Bowls project, and so much more. We really are blessed to live here.
We do have a couple more holiday events before we take a bit of a break.
This Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Orillia Opera House, enjoy a Canadian Christmas with The Fitzgeralds. The Fitzgeralds are Canadian champion fiddling and step dancing siblings: Tom, Kerry and Julie Fitzgerald. Little known fact? Their brother Jim is the manager of our own Orillia Area CDC. So, you know he will be there!
Guest artists for the show this year include Canadian step dance champion Kyle Waymouth, Canadian bluegrass fiddle player of the year Alanna Jenish, and percussionist James Law all the way from the Sunshine Coast, B.C.
You can grab your tickets at www.orilliaoperahouse.ca. Should be a rollicking dose of Christmas energy!
This Friday is the 10th annual Ugly Sweater Bowling Party, which sold out in five minutes flat this year. This fundraiser for The Sharing Place Food Centre is obviously hugely popular. Good luck with getting tickets next year! And huge thanks to organizer Derick Lehmann for putting this together.
The Orillia Vocal Ensemble, led by Blair Bailey, presents The Joy and Wonder of Christmas, this Saturday (Dec. 21) at 2 p.m. at St. Paul’s Centre. Special guests will be the Orillia Community Children’s Choir, led by Julia Johnson.
This will be a beautiful afternoon of music full of the joy of the season. These choirs sound lovely. As with all Orillia Vocal Ensemble concerts, admission is by freewill donation. For this concert, all proceeds will be going to the Orillia Central Preschool. So, bring your cash!
Saturday night, it’s the Diversity Holiday Gala, presented by the Orillia and Area Black Community Association, at the Best Western Mariposa on Memorial Avenue. Come enjoy a night of delicious food, dancing, music, and community. All are welcome! Get your tickets here.
Finally, a different take on the holiday season, the second annual Cantankerous Christmas with Michael Martyn and Friends, at the Hog ‘n’ Penny, from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 22. Apparently, it is a guaranteed Michael Buble- and Mariah Carey-free-zone.
Instead, enjoy songs by The Pogues, The Kinks, John Prine, Tom Waits, and more. This should be a lot of fun, of a different sort, this time of year!
If you haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet, downtown Orillia is a wonderful place to pick up lots of special somethings for those special someones. Many stores are open late this Friday, so come down and check it all out! For more information, follow along on social media here.
Looking forward to 2025, don’t forget to get your Mariposa Folk Festival tickets before the price goes up in the new year.
Lance Anderson’s Evening of Blues and Gospel is also on tap in February, always a good way to heat up that cold month. Tickets for both: www.mariposafolk.com.
Boots and Hearts and All Your Friends Festival tickets are on sale as well now, with great musicians at both. Tickets https://bootsandhearts.com/ and https://www.allyourfriendsfestival.com/.
The Orillia Concert Association has the Elmer Iseler Singers coming Saturday, Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. at the Orillia Opera House. This is a world-class choir, wonderful to hear. Tickets www.orilliaconcertassociation.com.
And Mariposa Arts Theatre presents The Thanksgiving Play, in February. Find out more about this thought-provoking play on their website at www.mariposaartstheatre.com.
Have a wonderful holiday season, any way you want to celebrate it. Next column, Jan. 1, 2025.
If you have arts news, send it to [email protected] by Tuesday at noon to be included.
