Grab your device, grab some refreshments and find a comfortable place to sit (or dance, if that’s your thing) as Cultural Industries Ontario North has teamed up with three northern festivals to host virtual livestream concerts.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, summer festivals have been cancelled.
On July 9, Northern Lights Festival Boréal (NLFB) presents Céleste Lévis, Kevin Closs and Barry Miles in concert.
The event was made possible through a collaboration with Cultural Industries Ontario North (CION), which has launched a new online venue called “The Lounge” aimed at delivering virtual concerts featuring Northern Ontario artists.
To make it happen, CION has teamed up with Northern Lights Festival Boréal, Live from the Rock Folk Festival and the Go North Festival for a series of Thursday night concerts featuring three to four artists per event.
The artists are drawn from the cancelled festivals mentioned above.
“As this date would have originally marked the beginning of our summer festival, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to partner with CION and bring the spirit of live music to the community. We are taking this opportunity to present some of our favourite northern Ontario artists to have appeared at recent editions of the festival” said Max Merrifield, the executive and artistic director of NLFB.
“Everyone should definitely tune in and check out some exclusive performances from dynamic songwriters living and working in our community.”
The show can be watched at the Facebook event page or on CION’s website.
Céleste Lévis rose to fame thanks to the popular Quebec TV version of The Voice, and has since taken the stage across Canada touring her first album “Céleste”. In September 2018, she released her self-produced album “Donne-moi le temps” that has since received six nominations at the Gala des Prix Trille Or and the Northern Ontario Film & Music Awards.
Kevin Closs is a singer-songwriter from Sudbury, with a career stretching back to 1990. He has worked as a recording and performing artist releasing 10 independent albums and playing concerts, festivals and clubs across the country. Over the years, Closs’ work has charted on the Canadian Adult Contemporary and Country Music charts and earned him the Jackie Washington Award in 2002 and the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts Exceptional Achievement Award in 2016. He has garnered support from the Ontario Arts Council from which he received grants in 1996, 2002, 2016 and 2018.
With a knack for storytelling and a penchant for tragedy, Barry Miles combines a love of broken characters and sinister afterthoughts into a muddy blend of alternative folk and northern gothic.
Barry is a roots, rock, folk and country artist, also known as a primary member of Sudbury’s bluegrass-outlaw country supergroup Murder Murder.
