The City of Victoria’s virtual Canada Day celebration will air on CHEK at 7 p.m. tomorrow.
Hosted by CHEK’s Joe Perkins and Stacy Ross, Victoria’s virtual Canada Day celebration is a one-hour long broadcast that will feature musical performances from an exciting local lineup and a special performance by the Lekwungen Traditional Dancers.
In addition to airing on CHEK, this commercial-free will also be streamed on canadadayvictoria.ca, as well as CHEK’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Alternatively, it will also be streamed on the City of Victoria’s YouTube channel.
“With everything, we have experienced locally and as a country due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, this is a Canada Day we won’t soon forget,” said Mayor Lisa Helps. “Even though we can’t physically be together on the Legislature lawn, we can still come together virtually to celebrate Canada’s diversity and its strengths. What it means to live in Canada very much depends on personal experience, whether you’re Indigenous, a newcomer, or have lived here for much or all of your life. Our virtual program aims to reflect the diversity of experiences in our country and in our city.”
Crowd-sourced content will be interspersed throughout the show, with members of the community demonstrating “What it means to Me to be Canadian” and singing “O Canada.”
An eclectic mix of local music will be showcased throughout the broadcast. There will be performances from Victoria’s acoustic duo Ocie Elliott, comprised of Jon Middleton and Sierra Lundy as well as Caleb Hart, Sari Alesh, The Phatfunks, and Paint The Town Red – a rap group forged from the Tsartlip Nation in the Wsanec territory comprised of Brian Sampson a.k.a YellowWolf, Thomas Paul a.k.a Barndawg, and Addie Elliott.
Viewers will get to enjoy the genre-bending pop and R&B sounds of Fake Fake, featuring Victoria-based artists Charlotte Hynds and Justin Campbell.
Victoria’s artist in residence Kathryn Calder – solo artist and a vocalist and keyboardist with indie rock group The New Pornographers – along with Latin Grammy award winner Kuba Oms, Ken Lavigne – singer and founding member of The Canadian Tenors – and Chris Donison, composer and founder of Music by the Sea, will also perform.
This virtual celebration will also feature members of Pacific Opera Victoria performing Pop Up Opera, featuring a soloist or duet accompanied by recorded tracks created by pianist Robert Holliston.
And of course, there will be fireworks footage from a past Symphony Splash.
“I would like to thank event partners Canadian Heritage, CHEK and Do250 for helping us bring the community together virtually to celebrate our country’s diversity and strength, the many talented performers for taking part, and all those who contributed a video to our Victoria’s Canada Day showcase,” said city councillor and Canada Day Organizer Charlayne Thornton-Joe.
Canadian Heritage Celebrate Canada has provided $50,000 in funding for the virtual event.
For biographies on all the performers visit canadadayvictoria.ca. Be sure to tune in to CHEK at 7 p.m. or visit our Facebook page and YouTube channel at that time.
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