Members of Sewlyn Township council have a little fun after Peterborough County in collaboration with Selwyn Township officially unveiled an all-inclusive Pride crosswalk at the corner of Reid and Queen streets in the Village of Lakefield on July 17, 2023. (Photo: Selwyn Township Deputy Mayor Ron Black / Twitter)
Joining a growing number of small Ontario communities, the Village of Lakefield now has a Pride crosswalk.
Peterborough County in collaboration with Selwyn Township officially unveiled the crosswalk, located at the corner of Reid and Queen streets, on Monday (July 17).
According to a media release from Peterborough County, the “all-inclusive” Pride crosswalk is intended to promote inclusivity, diversity, and belonging and to celebrate the 2SLGBTQ+ community within Selwyn Township and all of Peterborough County throughout the year.
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“The Township of Selwyn continues to be a diverse, inclusive, and welcoming place for everyone to visit and live,” said Selwyn Township mayor Sherry Senis. “No matter who you are, you are safe, valued and welcomed in our community.”
Peterborough County warden Bonnie Clark thanked staff at Peterborough County and Selwyn Township for leading the initiative.
“We must continue with intentional acts of inclusivity such as this to demonstrate our commitment to welcoming all people to our communities,” Clark said.
A police cruiser outside the Kawartha Lakes police station. (Photo: Kawartha Lakes Police Service)
Kawartha Lakes police have arrested a 28-year-old Lindsay man in connection with an unprovoked stabbing incident in Lindsay early Monday morning (July 17) that sent a man to hospital.
At around 5 a.m., the victim was walking on William Street North when he was approached by an man unknown to the victim who asked for a cigarette.
The man became agitated and kicked and stabbed the victim before leaving the area with a second person who appeared to be waiting across the street.
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Police say the injuries suffered by the victim are non-life threatening.
As a result of an investigation, officers identified and arrested a suspect in the stabbing.
Michael Thomas, 28, of Lindsay has been charged with assault with a weapon, assault cause bodily harm, and two counts of failing to comply with a probation.
Thomas is being held in custody and will appear at the Ontario Court of Justice located at 440 Kent Street West in Lindsay on Tuesday.
The original version of this story has been updated with information about the arrest and charges.
Canadian virtuoso guitarist Jesse Cook, pictured performing at Peterborough Musicfest in July 2017, returns to Musicfest to perform a free-admission concert in Del Crary Park on July 19, 2023. (Photo: Peterborough Musicfest)
Juno award-winning Toronto guitarist Jesse Cook has found truth in William Shakespeare’s declaration that “all the world’s a stage.”
Peterborough Musicfest presents Jesse Cook
When: Wednesday, July 19, 2023 at 8 p.m. Where: Del Crary Park (100 George St. N., Peterborough) How much: Free admission
Bring your own lawn chairs or blankets (lawn chairs are available to rent). VIP seating available for sponsors. No smoking, alcohol, or pets permitted. There’s no public parking at Del Crary Park, but there’s neighbourhood street parking nearby and ample parking in downtown Peterborough.
Born in Paris — he spent summers at his father’s home in the Camargue region of southern France — the guitar virtuoso has an international pedigree that few musicians can lay claim to, selling out concert halls around the globe while feeding his fans’ appetite with 12 studio albums.
“If you asked me at age 22, I would have said that I would never, never, make music for the public,” said Cook in a management-provided bio. “I would have told you the public is much too fickle … they may love you one minute and forget you the next. Well, it turns out I did the thing I said I’d never do and somehow it has worked out.”
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How well things have worked out for Cook will be fully evident Wednesday, July 19th at Del Crary Park when he returns to Peterborough Musicfest, having last played the festival in 2017. Admission to the 8 p.m. show is free.
Performing on the nylon-string guitar, Cook combines elements of the genres of Spanish flamenco, classical, jazz, pop, Brazilian samba, Persian music, and more into his original compositions.
“My music is fused with a multicultural concept that is very Canadian,” Cook says in an interview with Parvati Magazine in September 2019. “I feel like every year, the world of music is becoming more multicultural.”
VIDEO: “Shake” – Jesse Cook
That Cook found success in the arts arena is undeniably rooted in his upbringing by his creatively expressive parents, photographer and filmmaker John Cook and Canadian television director and producer Heather Cook. During those summers in southern France at his father’s house, he lived next door to Gypsy King guitarist Nico Reyes.
Enrolled on Toronto’s prestigious Eli Kassner Guitar Academy by his mother, Cook continued his musical education studying classical guitar at the Royal Conservatory of Music and Toronto’s York University (where he also studied Indian drumming) and jazz guitar at Boston’s Berklee College, with the aim of becoming a concert guitarist.
“There was this period where I was practising 10 hours a day and I was imagining myself on a stage,” he recalls. “I think as I got closer and closer to getting out of Berklee and getting a job, I began to chicken out. I thought, ‘Am I crazy? Nobody has a career as a concert guitarist. What kind of delusional person are you?’ I figured I’d be behind the scenes — a composer, a producer, a musical director.”
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That’s what he did throughout his twenties until a turn of events, prompted by a cable television company airing his music as the background soundtrack for its listings loop, changed the trajectory of his music career.
“Their switchboard got flooded with calls,” marvels Cook. “People even got my number somehow and started phoning me at home, asking for a CD. I was saying ‘I don’t have a CD. I’m a background composer guy. I don’t make records.'”
That response got the wheels turning in Cook’s head and he acted, recording and self-producing Tempest in his home in 1995. He delivered the initial run of his debut album personally, getting it in the hands of his distributor. Buoyed by Cook’s performance at the Catalina Jazz Festival, Tempest entered the Billboard chart listing at a very respectable number 14.
VIDEO: Rumba Flamenco Music – The Best of “Love In The Time of Covid” – Jesse Cook
Since that debut, Cook has recorded 11 studio albums. That body of work earned him music industry accolades early in the form of Juno award nominations in 1998 and 2001 — the former for Instrumental Artist of the Year and the latter for Best Male Artist. But he didn’t walk away empty-handed from the 2001 Juno awards ceremony, taking home the Best Instrumental Album statue for his 2000 platinum-certified release Free Fall. In total, his work has brought him a remarkable 11 Juno Award nods.
Honoured in 2009 by Acoustic Guitar magazine as the silver winner of its Player’s Choice Award in the flamenco category (gold went to Paco de Lucia), Cook is also a three-time recipient of Canadian Smooth Jazz’s Guitarist of the Year Award.
During the pandemic, Cook, like musicians everywhere, saw his plans abruptly interrupted. Tempest 25, a re-issue of his debut album, was shelved as was a world tour in support of its release. So it was that Cook turned to Plan B, producing a series of YouTube videos of his performing his favourite songs. The collection, billed as “Love In The Time of COVID,” did much to enhance his already formidable global fan base.
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“The first year (of the pandemic), with no touring, I needed a mountain to climb,” recalls Cook of his motivation.
As evidence of the international appeal of his sound, Cook’s music has scored the nightly news broadcast in Iraq. At the Olympics, skating and gymnastics routines have been delivered with his music as the soundtrack.
“In Turin (in 2006), a Japanese skater and a Russian skater competed using the same song (Mario Takes A Walk),” Cook notes. “One of them won. I think I should have got the bronze (medal).”
VIDEO: “Once” – Jesse Cook
Cook quips that his music “has had a way more interesting life” than he has had.
Still, his compositional style — often described as “world music,” a nebulous term originally intended to encompass any music outside the North American or British pop and folk traditions — is something he takes more seriously.
“If music can come from around the world and interconnect so beautifully to create this beautiful tapestry, maybe there’s something that music can teach us.”
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Peterborough Musicfest is presenting 15 free-admission concerts during its 36th season, each staged on Wednesday and Saturday nights until August 19th, and supported by more than 100 sponsors, kawarthaNOW among them.
Overseen by general manager Tracey Randall and staff, a board of directors, and numerous volunteers, Peterborough Musicfest’s stated mission remains “to provide diverse, affordable live music to enrich cultural and economic prosperity in our community.”
For more information on this concert and the entire 2023 season, visit www.ptbomusicfest.ca or phone the Peterborough Musicfest office at 705-755-1111.
VIDEO: “Mario Takes a Walk” – Jesse Cook
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a headline sponsor of Peterborough Musicfest’s 2023 season.
Overlooking Lake Kashagawigamog, The Bonnie View Inn hosts dockside live music every summer. It is one of many venues in the Haliburton Highlands presenting local and visiting performers over the summer. (Photo: Bonnie View Inn)
When it comes to the multi-faceted appeal of the Haliburton Highlands as a seasonal destination, those in the know … know.
The region’s tourism promoters make no secret of the many wilderness adventures and on-water experiences offered, not to mention the numerous festivals and special events that dot the calendar. A quick tour of the Haliburton Highlands tourism website at myhaliburtonhighlands.com is as much an eye opener for the uninitiated as it is re-affirmation for the converted.
But look more closely. Try to find a date between now and the end of September when live music isn’t featured at any one of several venues in Haliburton, be it at the newly opened 150-seat The Music Room at Castle Antiques & Cafe in the village of Haliburton, the historic Dominion Hotel in Minden, or the Bonnie View Inn overlooking Lake Kashagawigamog. Then there are the numerous and more intimate patios that pair live tunes with their menu specialties.
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Thom Lambert is certainly well aware of the wealth of live music entertainment that calls the Haliburton Highlands home.
A 30-year resident of the region and digital content creator for Haliburton County, he’s a past-president of Haliburton Folk Music Society, for which his wife is the current artistic director. A musician himself, Lambert doesn’t qualify himself as an active performer (“When I do a gig, I usually put up a Facebook post that reads ‘Here’s my yearly gig.'”). Rather, he says, he’s “a music organizer” — a passion that has seen him and his wife host concerts at their home.
On the Haliburton Highlands tourism website, live entertainment listings are hiding in plain sight. The chronologically dated rundown of who’s playing where confirms an indisputable fact: Peterborough isn’t the centre of the Kawarthas universe when it comes to live music. Haliburton has it going on too.
Americana folk-pop duo Quote The Raven performed on July 15, 2023 at The Music Room, Haliburton Highlands’ newest music venue located inside of Castle Antiques & Cafe in Haliburton. (Photo: Castle Antiques & Cafe)
“We’ve been pushing it (the live music) maybe a little bit more than we typically would just because there’s so much happening but we’re not really making a concerted effort to get the word out,” says Lambert, adding “We certainly want people to know.”
There is, says Lambert, more for people to know.
“Without having hard numbers, we probably have 30 per cent more performances (this summer) than we would in a typical summer,” says Lambert.
“We have a brand new dedicated venue open (The Music Room) that has a full lineup — a very, very good lineup. Through the summer and fall, they’re doing concerts every two or three weeks, and fairly major acts too. The (Haliburton Forest Festival’s) Women of the Forest Concert Series, which was defunct during COVID, resurfaced this year.”
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While the post-pandemic resurgence of live music isn’t unique to the Haliburton Highlands, it’s perhaps even more important for a region whose economic health depends seasonal residents and tourists as well as locals.
“I think what also happened is a lot of our stakeholders, whether they’re accommodators or, quite often, bars and patios, recognized that music is a good way get a crowd. It seems like everybody jumped on the boat this year. You’ve got your formal ticketed events but then you’ve got more informal patio events.”
Anyone who asks Lambert how he would describe Haliburton County to the uninitiated receives what he terms his “escalator pitch.”
“It’s cottage country with culture,” he says. “There’s lots of cottage country in Ontario. There are lots of place with lakes and trees and rocks. The difference is we have this incredibly robust and diverse arts community. That’s a big part of our identity as a destination.”
The 2023 Haliburton Forest Festival’s “Women of The Forest” concert series takes place at the Logging Museum at the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve at 1095 Redkenn Road in the Haliburton Highlands. (Photo: Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve)
“Music is one part of it — visual arts is another part of it,” Lambert explains. “There’s theatre pretty much every night all summer. We have an opera studio (Highlands Opera Studio). How many rural cottage country communities have an opera studio? I think a lot of people were shocked when they first opened an opera studio here, but it has really thrived and become an integral part of the late summer arts scene.”
While the region boasts of its fair share of homegrown musicians, it welcomes many from distant points. That opens the door to a unique live music experience for both audience and performer.
“It’s one thing to see Emily Burgess or Rick Fines in a great little bar in Peterborough, but it’s a whole other thing to see them on a lakeside patio,” assesses Lambert.
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“Rick is here in a few weeks, playing at our lakeside amphitheatre (at Head Lake Park), outdoors where you’re watching the sunset behind him as he plays. You get to bring a picnic with you. Your kids get to run around and go swimming while you’re listening to the music. It’s a very different vibe than it is in an urban setting.”
“Emily, pre-COVID, did a residency here at one of our traditional resorts (Bonnie View Inn). She was there every Wednesday night for most of the summer. She said it’s more relaxing, it’s more interactive.”
“If Rick sees someone he recognizes in the audience, he’s like ‘Hey Bob, how are you?’ It’s a very different vibe. People are more relaxed and the music comes across in a slightly different way — a little less formal. You’re more likely to see some improvisation, maybe stuff that they wouldn’t normally do, or done in a slightly different way.”
Haliburton Rotary presents Music in the Park on Tuesdays during July and August at the amphitheatre at Head Lake Park in Haliburton. (Photo via Ontario Festival Group website)
Lambert notes that Haliburton’s population of about 20,000 swells to 40,000 to 60,000 with the arrive of seasonal residents. There’s a sizable captive audience for live music and top-of-their-game performers are aware of that and increasingly taking advantage.
A look at this summer’s live music schedule bears that out. Suzie Vinnick (July 24 at the Dominion Hotel and August 29 at Head Lake Park), Great Lake Swimmers (August 11 at Abbey Gardens), John McDermott (August 12 at Abbey Gardens), and Susan Aglukark (August 13, also at Abbey Gardens) are among those bigger-name acts making the trek.
“I think our local performers are elevated a little bit because they’re exposed to such a high quality of music,” says Lambert, adding ‘I go out and see a show and I’m like ‘I need to go home and practice.'”
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Fines and Burgess are two local musicians returning to perform in the Haliburton Highlands this summer, with other Peterborough-based musicians including SJ Riley and The Weber Brothers Band also lined up to perform.
“We have our local bands and duos and singers/songwriters. I think the whole thing is notched up a little bit because they feel they have to hold their own in that ecosystem.”
Noting there’s a now a prevalent “sense of opening up” post-COVID, Lambert says restaurants and hotels capable of hosting live music are taking advantage.
Along with regular no-cover live music on its patio, the Dominion Hotel in Minden presents its ticketed “Canadian Blues Legends” series during the summer. (Photo: Dominion Hotel)
“The Dominion Hotel is probably the most active presenting venue in the entire county,” he says. “The current owner has been presenting for years. He presents super top-notch acts — seven or eight (local performer) shows a week — and sometimes Juno-nominated blues artists twice a day on the weekend.”
Other venues in the Haliburton Highlands presenting regular live music this summer include The Rockcliffe – Moore Falls in Minden, Hollow Valley Resort in Dorset, and Haliburton Highlands Brewing and the Bonnie View Inn, both in Haliburton.
“I tell our accommodators you’ve got to talk about something other than the fact that you have comfortable beds. Somebody’s not driving past a hundred other places between here and the GTA because your beds are comfortable. I think a lot of places are looking at that and saying ‘Yeah, music is a good way to position myself in this destination.'”
“It must be working for those operators that are hosting musicians. They’re business people. They wouldn’t be forking out anywhere from $250 to $500 (for performers) if they weren’t getting that back.”
From August 11 to 13, 2023, Abbey Gardens in Haliburton is presenting its third Music @ The Gardens weekend music festival series set outdoors under the marquee tent and featuring Great Lake Swimmers, Peter Porcelain and the American Standard, John McDermott, and Susan Aglukark. (Photo: Abbey Gardens)
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Noting Haliburton is “one of the very, very few small destinations that has a destination management plan,” Lambert says the challenge is being “kind of limited in terms of capacity. We’re not the Muskokas. We don’t have hotels — we have traditional inns, we have B&Bs.”
“The core of the plan is if it’s a good place to live, it’s a good place to visit. The nice thing about music is you’re attracting a higher-value visitor as opposed to someone who is driving through, grabbing an ice cream cone, and then going on their way to Bancroft or Algonquin Park or somewhere else. We want people to come and experience the place. Music is one of the best ways to experience a place.”
Toronto-based comedian Steph Tolev is bringing her Filth Queen Tour to Peterborough's Market Hall on August 3, 2023. Last year, Tolev was featured in a Netflix comedy special and also opened for well-known American comedian Bill Burr. As the name of her tour suggests, Tolev will be performing her raunchy stand-up material as well as working the audience. (Photo: Van Corona)
Comedian Steph Tolev is coming to Peterborough and she’s bringing her raunchy, dirty, high-energy performance with her — consider yourself warned.
On Thursday, August 3rd, as part of her Filth Queen Tour, the stand-up comedian will be rocking her signature jumpsuit at Peterborough’s Market Hall. The Toronto-born comedian has four comedy albums, including I’m Not Well, which was nominated for comedy album of the year at the 2020 Juno awards.
Most recently, she was featured in last June’s Netflix stand-up special Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill — a compilation from the “Netflix is a Joke” comedy festival in Los Angeles the previous month — and also opened for the well-known American comedian at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena last August.
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Though Tolev was born in Toronto, the show will be bringing her to a familiar area. Her parents own a cottage north of Apsley and she can easily recall her childhood of running around barefoot and nonstop swimming.
The 38-year-old comedian is looking forward to performing at Peterborough’s Market Hall for the first time, where she’ll have the opportunity to try out some different material.
“It’s just different from the club scene,” she says. “And I can do all my cottage jokes that I never do anywhere.”
The location also means her family can come to the show. She admits that when she was just starting out, her family didn’t quite understand her comedy style. Now, despite her raunchy humour that often includes explicit personal stories, she has no qualms about performing in front of them.
Steph Tolev (right) at the family cottage with her younger sister Jess, who she calls her ‘number one supporter’ and who has appeared with Steph on her Steph Infection podcast. Although Steph has never performed at Peterborough’s Market Hall before, she is no stranger to the Kawarthas as the family cottage is located north of Apsley. Expect to hear some cottage-related jokes at Steph’s August 3rd Market Hall show. (Photo: Jess Tolev / Facebook)
“Sometimes I say things and I’m like, ‘Well, this is wildly inappropriate’,” Tolev explains. “But then the problem is too, sometimes I’ll say something so gross and then my dad laughs the hardest. That’s why I’m like this. My parents act like I’m weird, but I say ‘This comes from you guys.’ They have always been swearing, always been kind of gross. I tell them, ‘Don’t act like this came out of nowhere — you made this.'”
Though Tolev had always been a performer, she originally had her sights set on acting. When she didn’t get into acting school, she ended up studying comedy writing and performance at Toronto’s Humber College and found her new passion.
She says her first few stand-up shows were a “bomb,” but she pushed through the challenges to finally gain the satisfaction of getting those laughs.
“It takes a long time to get your voice, but I think after doing improv and sketch I got way more comfortable being myself,” she says. “Once you get your one big laugh, you want that all the time. You want that feeling that you’re just absolutely annihilating the stage.”
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Today, as she’s about to kick off on her Filth Queen Tour that will take her across the continent from July to October, she’s quickly selling out venues.
With 350 seats, Market Hall is one of the smaller venues she’ll be visiting — especially in comparison to the Scotiabank Arena when she opened for Bill Burr.
“It felt out of body,” she recalls of being on such a large stage with a famous comedian. “He’s such a nice, kind, generous man who genuinely finds me funny, and it was crazy.”
Due to the size of the Scotiabank Arena, she says she felt that she wasn’t able to connect with the audience, something she’s eager to do in Peterborough.
Comedian Steph Tolev pictured with American comedian Bill Burr, for whom she opened at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena last August. (Photo courtesy of Steph Tolev)
“When I do smaller places like Market Hall or clubs, I like the audience interaction,” Tolev explains. “I’ve really leaned into that in the last year, because I’ve been touring so much and really enjoy talking to people and getting them to talk back to me.”
She points out the show at Market Hall will likely include a lot of “crowd work” — when a comedian engages with the audience during their performance, calling out specific audience members, asking them questions, and improvising jokes based on their responses.
“I find people in smaller towns or venues are just way more open to answering stuff and talking, so I think it’ll be fun for that.”
She’s looking at the Market Hall show as an opportunity to practice her crowd work even more, as she’s hoping to soon split her sets evenly between stand-up and crowd work. Her goal is to be able to release a special that’s solely a compilation of crowd work.
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Local comedian John Carroll will open the show with a short set. Sharing the Market Hall stage with Tolev will be Woodbridge-born comedian Alex Pavone, who is no newcomer to performing alongside Tolev.
“We’re very similar,” Tolev says. “People think we’re related because we’re both high energy and nuts. But he’s not very dirty, so it’s a good balance.”
When she’s not on stage, Tolev also hosts the Steph Infection podcast where she welcomes fellow comedians to tell stories about different ailments, injuries, and infections that have taken over their bodies. She says she was inspired to create the podcast because of her own “body issues,” adding that her body always has “something bizarre happening,” from skin problems to blood clots and hives.
“We all have weird body stuff, so I just wanted to have an outlet for comics to just come and openly talk because we all have had some sort of body thing happen. We’ve all had an ailment. We’ve all had a surgery or some sort of growth.”
VIDEO: “12 Minutes of Jokes About Dating” featuring Steph Tolev (foul language)
Tolev explains she’s sometimes amazed by the reach of the podcast, with listeners often getting in touch to express they were able to diagnose their own problems from hearing the stories on her podcast.
“I think it’s a good outlet for people,” she says. “They feel better about themselves.”
Tolev’s stand-up comedy reaches people in a similar way. She says she’s very body positive and fans of her comedy will often reach out to express that they feel better about themselves because of her.
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“I don’t do politics or racial jokes because I don’t want people to be sitting there upset, thinking about other stuff they deal with every day,” she explains. “So when you see my show, it’s about me. I’m making fun of myself. I’ll poke fun at others, but I don’t want them to sit there thinking of negative stuff. I want them to be laughing.”
Tickets to “Steph Tolev & Friends” at the Market Hall are $35 and are available in person at the Market Hall box office at 140 Charlotte Street from 12 to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday or online anytime at tickets.markethall.org.
For more information about Tolev, including her tour dates and her Steph Infection podcast, visit her website at stephtolev.komi.io.
This story has been updated to remove comedian Pat Burtscher from the line-up, as he can no longer attend.
This photo of a Sunday sunset on Kasshabog Lake by Mike Quigg was our top Instagram post for June 2023. (Photo: Mike Quigg @_evidence_ / Instagram)
The promise of June. The docks get setup, the boats get put into the water. The wildlife reclaim their spaces.
The sunsets and sunrises remind us how spectacular they can be. And the long days are just the best reward after months of winter and snow.
I hope you had a wonderful June and enjoy our top photos from Instagram.
Do you want to get on our top photographers list? All you need is an Insta account and to tag us using our hashtag #kawarthanow when posting your photo.
We share photos from across our readership area, which is the five-county area surrounding Peterborough which includes Peterborough, Northumberland, City of Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton, and Hastings (we sneak in the occasional Algonquin Park picture as well, particularly if it’s by a Kawarthas photographer).
To see our daily shares of photos, follow us on Instagram @kawarthanow and check out our feed’s highlight reels for recaps of every month in 2023.
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#1. Sunday sunset on Kasshabog Lake by Mike Quigg @_evidence_
A 27-year-old Kawartha Lakes woman is dead following a single-vehicle collision just west of Millbrook on Friday morning (July 14).
At around 8 a.m., Peterborough police were called to the scene of the collision in the area of Tapley Quarter Line and County Road 21, three kilometres west of Millbrook.
The lone occupant of the vehicle, a 27-year-old woman from the City of Kawartha Lakes, was pronounced dead at the scene.
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Police have not released the name of the victim.
The road was closed for several hours while police documented the scene.
Police are continuing to investigate the collision.
Peterborough Public Health closed beaches at Rogers Cove and Beavermead Park in Peterborough on July 14, 2023 due to possibly harmful blue-green algae blooms. (Photo: Bruce Head / kawarthaNOW)
Rogers Cove and Beavermead Park beaches in the City of Peterborough are closed until further notice due to possibly harmful blue-green algae blooms in the water.
Peterborough Public Health, which tests the water quality at the two city beaches daily, observed the algae blooms while preparing to collect water samples on Friday (July 14).
Blue-green algae are a type of bacteria called cyanobacteria known for rapidly reproducing and collecting to form large, highly visible blooms, either throughout the water column, on the surface of water as a scum, or on the lake bottom as a mat.
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While many forms of blue-green algae are harmless, some species of cyanobacteria can also release poisons, called cyanobacterial toxins, when the cells that make up the bloom rupture or die.
Peterborough Public Health has temporarily closed the beaches for swimming as a precaution while awaiting further testing to confirm if the blooms are harmful.
“We immediately notified the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks Spills Action Centre and have received confirmation that the MECP will sample the blooms today,” says Julie Ingram, the health unit’s manager of environmental health, in a media release. “In addition, we have notified the City of Peterborough who are supporting the beach closures.”
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Exposure to blue-green algae toxins through activities like drinking, swimming, and bathing can cause various symptoms including itchy, irritated eyes and skin, rash, headache, fever, diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. Some people may have no reaction.
Pets should not be allowed to enter water with suspected or confirmed harmful algae blooms as they may consume large amounts of contaminated water, resulting in sickness or death.
The risk to humans is primarily from drinking water that has been contaminated with toxins from a dense harmful algae bloom. Long-term consumption of water containing high levels of cyanobacterial toxins may cause neurological or liver problems. Currently, there is no known risk to the City of Peterborough’s municipal drinking water supply.
All Juno award winners, indie folk-rock musician Dan Mangan, alt-country rockers The Sadies, and Oshawa indie pop band Dizzy are three of the musical acts performing at the 2023 Peterborough Folk Festival's admission-by-donation weekend at Nicholls Oval Park on August 19 and 20. (kawarthaNOW collage of artist photos)
The Peterborough Folk Festival has announced the remaining line-up of performers for the 34th annual weekend of music, food, and culture on Saturday, August 19th and Sunday, August 20th at Nicholls Oval Park, featuring a wide diversity of both out-of-town and local musical arts.
In addition to already-announced headliners alt-rockers Broken Social Scene and singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt along with children’s music duo Splash’N Boots, out-of-town performers include three Juno award winners: indie folk-rock musician Dan Mangan, alt-country rockers The Sadies, and Oshawa indie pop band Dizzy.
Other visiting performers include the 12-piece funk/jazz/hip hop band My Son The Hurricane, indie rocker Skye Wallace, indie folk band MOONRiiVR (the new project from The Wooden Sky’s Gavin Gardner), folk duo Bad Actors (a new project by former Murder Murder members Barry Miles and Jonathan Danyliw), 10-piece reggae band Reggaddiction, and Indigenous hip hop artist Mr. Sauga.
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The weekend also features local performers Evangeline Gentle, Matthew Holtby, Brooklyn Doran, Sarah McInnis, Charlie Glasspool, DOSES (Dylan Ireland’s new project), VANCAMP, Victoria Yeh, Nicholas Campbell, Little Fire Collective, and The Lucky Ones (featuring Ryan West who now resides in the Yukon).
The festival kicks off with two ticketed concerts on Thursday, August 17th and Friday, August 18th.
On Thursday, Juno award-winning pop-folk band The East Pointers will perform at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough with Ottawa-based roots singer-songwriter Mimi O’Bonsawin and Peterborough fiddling sensation Irish Millie opening. On Friday, two award-winning blues musicians will perform at the Gordon Best Theatre in downtown Peterborough, with Ottawa-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Angelique Francis headlining and Peterborough’s own singer-songwriter and guitarist Emily Burgess opening.
The line-up for the 2023 Peterborough Folk Festival, which includes two ticketed concerts on August 17 and 18 in downtown Peterborough and an admission-by-donation weekend of music, food, and culture on August 19 and 20 at Nicholls Oval Park. (Poster: Brittany Brooks)
“The Peterborough Folk Festival is lucky to have Ryan Kemp, a talented and dedicated artistic director, who strives to realize the festival’s mandate to to promote music and arts
within the Peterborough community with a focus on inclusivity and sustainability,” says festival chair Rob Davis in a media release.
The admission-by-donation weekend at Nicholls Oval Park features four stages of live music,a family-friendly children’s village, an artisan village, a food village, Cameron’s Brewing beer pavilion, and more.
While the festival’s poster has been finalized (designed by Cobourg musician Brittany Brooks, who performs with Bailieboro native Jimmy Bowskill in the duo Brooks and Bowskill), festival organizers say there are also a couple of line-up “surprises” still to be announced.
Weekend after-parties will be held at Jethro’s Bar + Stage in downtown Peterborough.
“The Peterborough Folk Festival is thrilled to showcase this diverse line up featuring amazing renowned Canadian talent as well as over a dozen local performers,” Davis says.
“Together, their performances will amplify the richness of our shared human experience and celebrate the vibrant tapestry of our community.”
In advance of the festival, organizers are seeking more volunteers and also still have openings available for vendors.
For more information about the festival, including how to get involved as an artist, volunteer, or vendor, visit www.peterboroughfolkfest.com.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the 2023 Peterborough Folk Festival.
A view of Victoria Beach on Lake Ontario in Cobourg. (Photo courtesy of Linda McIlwain)
Every Friday during swimming season, we post The Beach Report™ — our weekly report of the results of water quality testing at beaches in the greater Kawarthas region and update it throughout the week as conditions change.
As of Thursday, July 20, the following beaches are unsafe for swimming:
Beavermead Park – City of Peterborough (closed due to suspected harmful algae bloom)
Rogers Cove – City of Peterborough (closed due to suspected harmful algae bloom)
Hiawatha Park – Peterborough County
Squirrel Creek Conservation Area – Peterborough County
Beach Park – Bobcaygeon
Four Mile Lake Beach – Somerville
Rotary Head Lake Beach – Haliburton County
Harwood Waterfront & Dock – Northumberland County
East Beach – Port Hope
Wicklow Beach – Alnwick-Haldimand
Tweed Park – Stoco Lake
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Below are the complete results of water quality testing at beaches in the City and County of Peterborough, the City of Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County, Northumberland County, and Hastings County and Prince Edward County.
In the City of Peterborough, Peterborough Public Health Inspectors sample the beaches at Rogers Cove and Beavermead every business day, and public beaches in the County of Peterborough are sampled at least once a week (except for Chandos Beach, Quarry Bay Beach, and White’s Beach which are sampled at least once in June, July, and August).
The Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit provides weekly testing results for beaches in the City of Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County, and Northumberland County. Testing is based on the most recent test results from the provincial lab in Peterborough for water samples taken from these beaches.
Hastings Prince Edward Public Health provides weekly testing results for beaches in Hastings County and Prince Edward County.
During the summer, local health units sample water at area beaches and test for bacteria such as E. coli to determine if the water quality at a beach is safe for public use. Popular beaches, like the beach at Roger’s Cove in Peterborough’s East City, are tested every business day while most other beaches are tested weekly. (Photo: Bruce Head / kawarthaNOW.com)
Important note
The following test results may not reflect current water quality conditions. Water samples can take one to three days to process and heavy rainfall, high winds or wave activity, large numbers of waterfowl near a beach, or large numbers of swimmers can rapidly change water quality.
You should always check current conditions before deciding to use a beach. You should also monitor other factors that might suggest a beach is unsafe to use, such as floating debris, oil, discoloured water, bad odours, and excessive weed growth.
kawarthaNOW.com offers two enews options to help readers stay in the know. Our VIP enews is delivered weekly every Wednesday morning and includes exclusive giveaways, and our news digest is delivered daily every morning. You can subscribe to one or both.
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