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WINNIPEG
- NIGHTLIFE AND ENTERTAINMENT |
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Winnipeg tries hard to be the
cultural center of the prairies,
and generous sponsorship
arrangements support a good range
of theater, ballet, opera
and orchestral music . The
city also has some lively nightspots
, featuring the best of local and
national rock and jazz
talent. For listings ,
consult the Thursday edition of
the Winnipeg Free Press
newspaper or the free news sheet Uptown
, available from self-serve kiosks
all over the city and issued every
Thursday. The free magazine Where
, available from tourist offices,
also has listings, but their
reports are never critical.
These venues are supplemented
by an ambitious summer programme
of open-air concerts, notably the
nine-day Jazz Winnipeg Festival
(tickets range from free to $35;
tel 989-4656, www.jazzwinnipeg.com
) towards the end of June, and the
Winnipeg Folk Festival ($40
per day, $110 for 4-day pass; tel
780-3333 or 1-888/655-5354, www.wpgfolkfest.mb.ca
), a three-day extravaganza
featuring over a hundred concerts,
held in early July at Birds Hill
Provincial Park, 25km northeast of
the city. Apart from the music
festivals, the biggest festival in
Manitoba is Folklorama ($3;
tel 1-800/665-0234, www.folklorama.ca
), held during the first two weeks
in August to celebrate Winnipeg's
multiethnic population. The
festival has over forty pavilions
spread out over town, each devoted
to a particular country or region.
The Winnipeg Fringe Festival
(tickets range from free to $8;
tel 956-1340, www.mtc.mb.ca
) is a ten-day event of theatrical
productions, held in mid-July in
the Exchange District. St
Boniface's French-Canadian
heritage is honoured annually in
the Festival du Voyageur (tel
237-7692, www.festivalvoyageur.mb.ca
) - ten days of February fun,
whose events lead up to a torchlit
procession and the Governor's
Ball, where everyone dresses up in
period costume.
Music venues and clubs
Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain
, 340 Blvd Provencher, St Boniface
(tel 233-8972). Hosts weekly
concerts by French-Canadian
musicians. Free jazz sessions on
Tuesday at 9pm. Club 200 , 190
Garry St. A popular gay and
lesbian club. ...
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Classical music, opera and
ballet
Major performances by the Winnipeg
Symphony Orchestra ($13-40;
tel 949-3999) as well as the Manitoba
Opera (Nov-April; tel
780-3333, www.manitobaopera.mb.ca
) take place at the Centennial
Concert Hall, 555 Main St, in
the Exchange District (tel
956-1360); tickets are $11-25.
The Royal Winnipeg Ballet
, (information tel 956-0183,
tickets tel 956-2792 or
1-800/667-4792 from outside
Winnipeg) - Canada's finest
dance company - also performs at
the Concert Hall and has an
extensive programme of
traditional and contemporary
ballets; tickets are $9-45, with
student and senior-citizen
discounts of up to twenty
percent.
Cinema and theater
Winnipeg's largest mainstream cinema
is the Cineplex-Odeon, 234
Donald St, while Cinema 3, 585
Ellice Ave at Sherbrook Street,
shows foreign and second-run
films. Cinémathèque, 100
Arthur St (tel 925-3457), in the
Artspace building, concentrates
on Canadian releases. In summer
there's also the Cineplex Odeon
Drive-In on Portage Street West
(tel 837-4979). Winnipeg plays
host to the world's only
all-Canadian film festival -
forty short films and premieres
of Canadian films shown during
the week-long Local Heroes
Festival (tel 956-7800, www.nsi-canada.ca/localheroes
) in late February.
The city has several
professional theater
groups: principally the Popular
Theatre Alliance of Manitoba,
whose modern and imaginative
plays are performed at the Gas
Station, 445 River Ave at
Osborne Street (tel 284-9477);
and the Prairie Theater
Exchange, Portage Place (tel
942-5483), which performs
traditional and avant-garde
comedy and drama. The Manitoba
Theatre Center, 174 Market Ave (tel
942-6537 or 1-877/446-4500
outside Winnipeg, www.mtc.mb.ca
), and the Warehouse Theater,
140 Rupert Ave (tel 943-4849),
feature local talent, though
Winnipeg's main theatrical
events are performed by
international touring companies
in the Centennial Concert Hall.
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