Are you ready, Sudbury, for the premiere arts festival of the winter?
That’s right, the 2024 Northern Arts Festival is coming in hot, from February 8 to 18, at many venues throughout Sudbury and area.
Presented by Sudbury Performance Group (SPG), this festival has been greatly expanded in 2024 and has something for everyone, according to SPG President, Mark Mannisto. “This is the sixth year of the Northern Arts Festival, and we have really broadened the scope, from just a music festival to a real festival of all of the arts, with spoken word, poetry, theatre, a makers’ market, and so much more, in addition to lots and lots of music,” Mannisto enthused.
The Festival kicks off with the world premiere of a made-in-Sudbury original musical, ‘No Fences’, written by transplanted Brit-turned-Northern Ontario lover, actor and musician Andy Lowe.
Lowe, who immigrated to the region in 1984, explained, “’No Fences’ is about my love for Northern Ontario, for this area and the people in it. I just wanted to say thank you, basically, to the region for being a good home to me as an immigrant.”
‘No Fences’ will run from February 8 to 10 at Thorneloe University. Tickets can be purchased here.
This Northern Ontario musical is just the beginning of the Northern Arts Festival. Many other events are happening throughout the festival’s run, in 16 other venues throughout the city. Mannisto highlighted just a few of the special offerings this year.
“We have a lot of returning artists as well as a slew of new performers. In particular, we have Metis songstress, Caitlin Drohan, who will be making her live music performance debut with us. She is a tremendous spirit that the world just needs to hear. We will be offering music and dance for the Latin community. Audiences can dance the night away with Sudbury’s hottest Latin group, Claudio, Aurel, Blanca and Jheymy.”
There are a host of family-friendly events during the festival as well. “For the children we have story time with Maija happening at the Sudbury Public Library. Also, the princesses from 'We Bring the Party' are coming to the Ukrainian National Federation Hall. We also have a family-only Karaoke party with Cory-oke happening at Laurentian University.”
Mannisto added, “All our family-friendly events are free for families to come out and celebrate their youthful spirit!”
Other venues for the Northern Arts Festival include the Hilton Garden Inn, Trevi Restaurant, Fionn MacCool’s, Sudbury Arena, The Night Owl, Place des Arts, Sudbury Market, local libraries, and the Capreol Legion.
“The Gillian Shultze Gallery will be hosting live music February 9 from 3 to 9 p.m., and February 10 from 12 noon to 4 p.m., and this will be in addition to the maker’s market which will be happening there at the same time,” explained Mannisto. “This will be the perfect marriage between visual art and everything that the Northern Arts Festival has to offer.”
The festival is offering both ticketed and drop-in events.
For information on all the offerings of this year’s Northern Arts Festival, go to the website or follow along on Sudbury Performance Group’s social media, here.
“We are very proud and thrilled to present this year’s Northern Arts Festival with over 50 Northern artists, across Greater Sudbury,” said Mannisto. “We hope to see you there to celebrate the artistic mosaic of Northern Ontario!”