Chelsea Rushton
Gabriola Arts Council
The Gabriola Arts Council is excited to present the 2025 Cultivate Performing and Arts Festival!
On Saturday July 12, begin with brunch and baroque music, hosted by the Vancouver Island Symphony as part of their Summer Sizzle Festival (https://vancouverislandsymphony.com/), then help us open Cultivate in a good way with welcome prayers by Snuneymuxw Elder C’tasi:a Geraldine Manson, and song and drumming by the Salish Sisters. Take in a matinee performance in English and French by the EnviroSongsters that will inspire your love and care for the earth, then have a power nap to get ready for our mainstage performances. Bryce Lalonde and Andreas Kahre will open with a journey of tones on hang drum, kalimba, ukulele, and more. Husband and wife duo Coalmont will follow with a set of powerful music and thoughtful storytelling. Our headliner, 3 x Juno Award winner Joel Plaskett, will finish the evening strong and soft with a must-see performance.
Sleep in on Sunday July 13 before a lunch hour performance by the iconic Kerplunks. Regroup later in the afternoon to explore the complexities of the human emotional experience through the bilingual movement and dance performance, Voices in My Body, and bring your singing voice and your dancing shoes for our mainstage performances. The Gabriola Pops! Community Choir with Harrison Way, directed by Leah Hokanson will sing our hearts open to well loved pop songs celebrating our beautiful world. broadband will rock us out in a multi-decade mash-up of R&B, folk, country and blues, and our high-energy West Coast sound dancin’ machine headliner Wunderbread will disco groove us right into our dreamtime, where seeds for next year’s festival get planted.
Delight all weekend in the fares of our visiting food trucks: The Steel Pan on Saturday, and HoJo’s Eats on Sunday. They’ll be behind the Commons Kitchen from 12-9pm and will serve lunch, snacks, and dinner to fuel your festival activities and beyond.
Tickets for Cultivate are on sale now at https://artsgabriola.ca/cultivate-festival/, and if you pulled the June 11 Sounder out of your post box, your brochure with schedule is inside! A digital version of the brochure is available by clicking here.
We can’t wait to share this year’s festivities with you!
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