encoreNOW is a bi-weekly column by Paul Rellinger where he features upcoming music, theatre, film, and performing arts events and news from across the Kawarthas.
This week, Paul highlights the 37th annual Peterborough Folk Festival, Farley Mowat’s And No Birds Sang at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre, the return of the Buckhorn Festival of the Arts, Newsies The Broadway Musical at Lindsay’s Academy Theatre, Fiddler on the Roof at the Bancroft Village Playhouse, and the Port Hope Jazz Festival.
The 37th Peterborough Folk Festival brings 30-plus acts to city
VIDEO: “Ready for a New Thing” – Bahamas
When you’re billed as Canada’s longest-running free admission folk festival, the pressure is on to outdo the previous year’s effort and maintain that reputation.
Set for August 13 to 16, the 37th annual Peterborough Folk Festival is destined to succeed, what with multiple acts — several of them Juno awarded or nominated — set to perform on one of multiple stages in Nicholls Oval Park.
While the focus, as it should be, is on the free-admission outdoor concerts, the festival kicks off Thursday (August 13) with a ticketed concert at 7 p.m. at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough with singer-songwriter Ken Yates joined by Tristan Konkle, this year’s festival Emerging Artist Award recipient. Tickets for that concert are $35 for floor seating or $25 for tiered seating and are available at markethall.org.
Things stay downtown the following day, with Western Canadian Music Awards Songwriter of the Year Slow Leaves (aka Winnipeg’s Grant Davidson) and Peterborough’s own 17-year-old singer-songwriter Ollie Mae headlining a free-admission concert at Quaker Foods City Square from 6 to 9 p.m. Then, starting at 9 p.m., The Pig’s Ear on Brock Street welcomes Yukon country-roots ensemble The Lucky Ones.
These shows are teasers for the weekend main event in the park. The full schedule of performances is at www.peterboroughfolkfest.com but some big names jump out in the form of Bahamas, Begonia, Aysanabee, Shad, Terra Lightfoot, The Free Label, Georgia Harmer, and Dean Johnson. In total, the festival is welcoming more than 30 acts, 12 of those acts local.
Inclusivity, meanwhile, remains a festival priority, with full gender parity and diversity reflected in the number of Indigenous performers, artists of colour, and artists from LGBTQ+ communities. That alone has traditionally struck a chord with the attendees, who numbered more than 15,000 last year.
Kudos to festival chair Rob Davis and his crew for not only pulling together a stellar lineup but keeping the weekend festival a free-admission event, which sees a donation of $25 suggested but not necessary to gain admittance, thanks to the support of numerous sponsors and partners, kawarthaNOW among them.
Farley Mowat’s gritty war memoir comes to the Capitol Theatre
Port Hope draws great pride from its connection to Canadian writer and environmentalist Farley Mowat, and rightly so.
With sales of his books topping 17 million, and his work having been translated into 52 languages, Mowat remains a giant in the literary world. Born in Belleville, he spent several years in Port Hope with his second wife Claire during the latter stages of his life.
Mowat died in May 2014 at the age of 92 and is buried at historic St. Mark’s Anglican Church Cemetery in Port Hope. The town has commemorated the Order of Canada recipient’s residency in significant ways, including the naming of a park in his honour and the Boat Roofed House monument based on his 1998 non-fiction book The Farfarers.
All this considered, it only makes sense that a stage version of Mowat’s war experiences memoir, And No Birds Sang, premiere at Port Hope’s Capitol Theatre. Adapted for the stage by renowned Canadian playwright and Peterborough native Dave Carley, the gripping autobiographical account of Mowat’s service as a Canadian soldier in Sicily and Italy opens Friday (August 14) at the historic performance venue for 27 performances.
Directed by Capitol Theatre’s artistic director Rob Kempson, And No Birds Sang stars Aaron Macpherson as Mowat, with Daniel Reale and Mayson Sonntag performing in multiple roles and also performing live music and sound effects.
First conceived by Carley for Port Hope’s 10-Minute Play Series and developed into a full-length play in 2024 in the Capitol Theatre’s creators’ unit, the story caught Carley’s attention from the get-go.
“It immediately hit me that it was worth dramatizing,” he told kawarthaNOW in a recent interview, adding “It’s a real look into the psyche of the very young men that went off to war. I just marvel at what they did, because they were so young.”
“Farley Mowat is one our country’s greatest storytellers. He really had just a brilliant way of moving us from A to Z. I’m happy to be a part of that.”
Curtain is 7:30 p.m. on August 14 and 15, 20 to 22, 27 to 29, and September 3 to 5, with 2 p.m. matinees on August 16, 18 to 20, 22 and 23, 25 to 27, 29 and 30, and September 1 to 3, and 5 and 6. Tickets are $45 ($35 for those under 30) and are available at capitoltheatre.com. Note the play is being staged in the Capitol’s more intimate Sculthorpe Theatre, meaning seating is limited.
All things fine art descend again on picturesque Buckhorn
Most don’t really need an excuse to visit picturesque Buckhorn, but for those who do, the Buckhorn Festival of the Arts on Saturday and Sunday (August 15 and 16) should do the trick.
Established in 1978, the 49th annual event brings professional, world-renowned artists from across Canada to the Buckhorn Community Centre and the surrounding park-like setting. First held as a fundraiser to help pay for the centre’s mortgage, the festival has evolved into a must-attend event for art lovers and the generally curious.
Recognized as a Top 100 Festival by Festival and Events Ontario, the festival features artists on-site to talk about their work and, of course, lots of art for sale, ranging from paintings to photography to sculpture to fabric art.
This year’s festival will feature more than 70 artists as well as live music from Vladimir Gorodkin, Randy Avery, The Crooked Archers, Mazon Moxley, Jasmine Murray, The History Buffs, and Justin Maki, an amateur art competition, a family-friendly art activity zone, and food vendors.
This year’s special exhibit, curated by a committee of artists, is a solo show of paintings by the late Bobcaygeon artist David Foyn, known for his acrylic paintings of the Canadian landscape. This is only the second time that the special exhibit has honoured an artist posthumously.
For the complete list of exhibiting artists, visit www.buckhorncommunitycentre.com/events/buckhorn-festival-of-the-arts/.
Read all about it! “Newsies” has three August dates in Lindsay
Lindsay’s FLATO Academy Theatre is heralding a busy fall and winter season to come via its staging on Saturday and Sunday (August 15 and 16) of a two-time Tony Award-winning musical that had 1,000 Broadway performances.
Newsies: The Broadway Musical, with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, and book by Harvey Fierstein, premiered in 2011 at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Milburn, New Jersey before debuting on Broadway the following year.
Inspired by the real-life newsboys’ strike of 1899, the musical took home 2012 Tony Awards for Best Choreography and Best Musical Score, and during that same year, a pair of Drama Desk Awards, one for Outstanding Choreography and the other for Outstanding Music.
Featuring the songs “Carrying the Banner,” “Seize the Day,” and “Santa Fe,” Newsies is set in 1899 New York City where Jack Kelly and his ragtag team of newsboys (“newsies”) earn a pittance by purchasing and then selling copies of New York World on the streets. The newspaper’s greedy publisher, Joseph Pulitzer (after whom the prizes are named), decides to raise the price of the paper by 10 cents per hundred, forcing the newsies to absorb the cost of unsold papers.
Led by Jack and young newspaper reporter Katherine Plummer, the newsies form a union and strike. What follows is a joyful, energetic and entertaining tale that captures the strength that young people exhibit when unite to stand up against injustice.
The stage version is based on the 1992 musical drama Newsies, which starred some Hollywood heavyweights in the form of Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Ann-Margaret, and Robert Duvall.
Presented by the Orillia-based young people’s theatre school Duck Soup Productions, the Academy Theatre production runs for three performances, with matinee shows at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and an evening performance at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $41 inclusive of fees and are available at www.flatoacademytheatre.com.
Timeless musical “Fiddler on the Roof” Bancroft bound
A few weeks back, I related how my mom used to take me to all the Elvis Presley films, the reason being that my dad wasn’t a fan of The King and mom wanted company. No complaints from me, thanks to lots of popcorn and soda drinks.
Well, it was the same with musicals, of which Dad was definitely no fan. Turns out that was hereditary, as I wasn’t either. That said, one film musical I was dragged to became a favourite, thanks in large part to its rousing musical numbers and excellent character portrayals. Released in 1971, Fiddler on the Roof was that film.
The film, however, was preceded in 1964 by the stage musical of the same name with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein. Until Grease came along, Fiddler on the Roof held the record for the longest-running Broadway musical and surpassed 3,000 performances.
The winner of nine Tony Awards, the music is remembered well by those who don’t even frequent musicals — “If I Were A Rich Man,” “Sunrise, Sunset,” “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” and the rousing opening number “Tradition” quickly come to mind.
On Wednesday, August 19, Fiddler on the Roof opens at the Bancroft Village Playhouse. Set in the little village of Anatevka, the story centres on Tevye, a poor milkman, and his five daughters. With the help of a colourful and tight-knit Jewish community, Tevye tries to protect his daughters and instill them with traditional values in the face of changing social mores and the growing anti-Semitism of Czarist Russia.
Rich in historical and ethnic detail, the musical’s theme of tradition cuts across barriers of race, class, nationality and religion, leaving audiences crying tears of laughter, joy and sadness.
The Tweed & Company Theatre production features a professional cast of Canadian talent, alongside local performers and participants in Tweed & Company’s youth theatre training program.
Curtain is at 7 p.m. from August 19 to 22, 26 to 29, and September 2 to 5, with 2 p.m. matinee performances on August 20, 22, 23, 27, 29, 30, and September 3, 5 and 6. Available at www.villageplayhouse.ca, tickets are $41 for adults, $36.50 for seniors, and $26.50 for students, youth, and arts workers.
Port Hope is getting all jazzed up for a remarkable 25th year
VIDEO: “Escape” by Angelique Francis featuring Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
As well as seeing And No Birds Sang at the Capitol Theatre, another reason to visit Port Hope in August is to take in the 25th edition of the Port Hope Jazz Festival.
Set for August 20 to 23, this is as well-attended a music festival as you’ll find anywhere in the Kawarthas. Not only is the downtown setting most welcoming, but the lineup of Canadian jazz musicians is superb.
Performing at venues including Memorial Park, The Bloue Room, Hotel Carlyle, Port Hope United Church, The Ganaraska Hotel, and Ganaraska Brewing Company, the lineup features: Angela Pincente Big Band; Dánae Olano Quartet; Genevieve Marentette and Michael Shand; Emilie-Claire Barlow, Michael Shand, Duncan Hopkins, and Lorne Nehring; Pat LaBarbera; Dixie Demons; Jabfung; Eliana Cuevas and Jeremy Ledbetter; Adrean Farrugia, Marcus Nance, Pat LaBarbera, Jake Koffman, Mark Kelso, and Dan Fortin; Angelique Francis; Alex Samaras, Allison Au, and Todd Pentney; Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet; and Gordon Sheard and Colleen Allen.
Visit www.porthopejazz.com/artists to find out who’s playing where and when.
Most events are ticketed, with the prices varying from $10 to $40. Visit www.eventbrite.com/o/67944413763 for advance tickets to performances. You best hurry, though — five of the 15 shows are already sold out as of the date of this story.
Encore
- Just when you think summer couldn’t go any faster, bam … here we approaching the end of another season of Peterborough Musicfest concerts in Del Crary Park. The final week of the 2026 festival of free-admission concerts will see supergroup Trans-Canada Highwaymen performing this Wednesday (August 12) and Bon Jovi/Styx tribute act Crystal Faith on Saturday (August 15), with 1950s/1960s crooners The Dreamboats closing the season next Wednesday (August 19). All shows start at 8 p.m. Work will soon begin on the concert series’ 40th season in 2027. Things have indeed come a long way since the late Fred Anderson brought Moe Koffman to the stage on July 1, 1987. It’d be fitting next summer to bring the still much-loved illuminated boats back to Little Lake in his honour. Something to think about.
- Set for September 12 on the property of Guye Vondette at 302 Juliet Road in Peterborough, Guyestock 2026 is again a go with all-local music acts performing from noon to 8 p.m. This is the sixth Guyestock event and it’s about as grassroots as it gets in the fresh air with eight acts featured. All are invited but a $20 donation is requested at the entrance, with all money collected divided amongst the acts who are giving up their time to play. Bring your lawn chairs and coolers and enjoy. Well done to all who have kept this under-the-radar but well-worth-attending event alive.
