Fridays are musical days in Dawson, this summer, with concerts at the Riverside Park Gazebo and the ballroom at the KIAC (Dënäkär Zho) Ballroom, every week until sometime in August.
Each week there will be a free noon-hour concert at the Gazebo (also broadcast on CFYT-FM) and a paid evening show at the ballroom.
The fun began on May 27, with a noon-hour concert by the Olivier Clements Ensemble, at the Gazebo, and continued into the evening with more or less the same jazz musicians reconfigured as the Lorène Charmetant Band.
Charmetant has played standup bass in Clements’ band, and he played trumpet and flugelhorn in the group when she was the lead vocalist.
Those events were assisted by Jazz Yukon and L’Association franco-yukonnaise (AFY), while the entire summer program is being mounted with aid from the Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, the Yukon Government, Keno City Music Festival, Parks Canada, the Bunkhouse, the Arts Fund and the City of Dawson.
June 3 saw a different genre of program, with John from Dawson rapping at noon and again in the evening, joined by Kirkland.
June 10 will have two different shows. Claire Ness and Friends will play a kids’ show at the Gazebo, while Dana Sipos and Joey O’Neil will be in the ballroom that night.
Kevin Barr & Friends will be at the Gazebo on June 17, and the Problematic Orchestra will play the ballroom in the evening.
On June 24, Veranda will play the noon free event and will be joined by Gab Gosselin at the ballroom that night.
Tickets for the evening shows have been $12 and are available online through KIAC.
Seating at the Gazebo is open air and mask free, while those in the ballroom are asked to sit in their bubbles (seats are arranged for that) and wear masks when they are not seated.
The programs for July and August have not yet been released.
