People in our area sometimes overlook the entertainment opportunities available to us just across the Canadian border.
The Winnipeg Folk Festival is an example.
Canadian folk music icon Bruce Cockburn, 11-time Grammy Award-winning producer and musician Daniel Lanois-whose production credits include U2, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson, among others-and Canadian pop music favorites the Barenaked Ladies are among the performers taking the stage this year.
The festival gets underway at 7 p.m. Thursday and wraps up Sunday evening at Birds Hill Provincial Park about 20 minutes northeast of downtown Winnipeg on Provincial Highway 59.
Besides evening main stage concerts, festival-goers Friday through Sunday can take in a variety of more intimate performances through the day at one of nine small stage tents set up across the festival grounds.
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A variety of children's activities, ranging from face-painting and puppetry to games and crafts, are offered throughout the day Friday through Sunday, as well.
Ticket prices at the gate range from $73 (Canadian) for Thursday night's opening show to $249 for full festival four-day tickets.
For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, check out the festival website at winnipegfolkfestival.ca.
On this side of the international border, the Pembina County Fair runs Thursday through Sunday in Hamilton, N.D.
The event, marking its 124th anniversary, features livestock shows and a fine art exhibit, as well as food and commercial vendors, live musical entertainment and lots of activities for kids.
Catch the excitement of the "bull-o-rama" and horse races.
For more information, call the (701) 265-3134 or visit www.cavaliernd.com/pembina-county-fair .
The Summer Performing Arts (SPA) Company rolls out timeless musical productions, "The Music Man" and "Carousel," later this month.
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The Tony Award-winning play by Meredith Willson, "The Music Man" tells the story of a con man who poses as a boys band organizer and romances the prim "Marian the Librarian."
The score is filled with memorable tunes such as "Ya Got Trouble," "76 Trombones," "Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little" and "Lida Rose" that you'll be humming long after the curtain falls.
Performances begin at 7 p.m. July 14, 15 and 17 and 4 p.m. July 16 at the Central High School Auditorium.
Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $6 for children and students.
"Carousel," the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein's classic that Time magazine named the best musical of the 20th century, revolves around the romance of a carousel barker and a millworker in 1873 in a small seaside community in Maine.
Highlights of the show are sure to be familiar tunes including "June Is Bustin' Out All Over," "If I Loved You" and "You'll Never Walk Alone."
Shows start at 7 p.m. July 22, 24 and 25 and 4 p.m. July 23 at Red River High School's Performance Hall.
Tickets for "Carousel" are $18 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $6 for children and students.
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For reservations, call (701) 746-2411. Box office is open from 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday at RRHS, door 22, or go online to www.spacompany.org .
