A full season of Arts Whistler Live! is about to kick off for the first time since the 2018-2019 edition.
“Putting this season together was pretty exciting,” says Imogen Osborne, programming director. “It’s one of my favourite things to program at Arts Whistler.”
While some facets of life might feel back to normal, organizing a nearly eight-month-long series with nine performances from different mediums wasn’t without its challenges.
“It hasn’t been easy to program because there’s still some travel challenges with a lot of the bands. We’re coming out of everything, but I did have a lot of people reaching out looking for dates for their tours. They’re mostly acts putting together tours nationally or regionally in B.C.,” Osborne says.
The series starts on Sept. 23 with Fireflight–A Supernatural Circus, which combines circus talent, including aerials, projections, choreography and acrobatics.
That will be followed by Raven Spirit Dance, which performs contemporary dance from an Indigenous point of view, on Oct. 28; country-tinged Americana rockers TrailerHawk on Dec. 10; comedians Julie Kim and Katie-Ellen Humphries, with guest Henok Meresa, on Jan. 28; BC Entertainment Hall-of-Famer Marcus Mosley with his nine-member ensemble on Feb. 26; the “unstoppable orgy of energy,” Five Alarm Funk on March 4; indie-folkers The Crescent Sky on March 18; Early Morning Rain: the Songs of Gordon Lightfoot with John McLachlan and Marc Atkinson on April 22; and Kytami and Phonik Ops, who combine classical and electronic music, on May 5.
Almost all of the offerings are new to the Maury Young Arts Centre. “I’m pretty excited about a lot of them,” Osborne says. “They’re pretty much all brand new to our venue, which is something that’s really exciting.”
Arts Whistler, meanwhile, has been seeing a mix of familiar and new faces in the crowd at its events since pandemic closures.
“People are coming back and really enjoying live music and live entertainment,” Osborne adds. “It was probably missed more than we realized. It’s really nice to see people coming out and enjoying it again.”
For more information, and to buy tickets, visit artswhistler.com/live.
