As 2022 unfolded, leisure venues started to reopen following the very darkish days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Via all of the pandemic uncertainty of the previous yr, there have been many memorable moments on the Surrey leisure beat, as chronicled beneath (in no specific order).
• A Surrey-based sitar virtuoso was deemed the primary individual to ever play the instrument so near the height of Mt. Everest. In Might, Sharanjeet Singh Mand made the journey to Nepal with a bunch of 11 individuals, and carried his delicate sitar up the well-known mountain to its base camp, the place he performed the instrument for others on the trek. Sadly, the instrument was later broken throughout a home flight to Montreal, and Mand was not proud of the airline.
• Nickelback’s Surrey-raised drummer, Daniel Adair, flew excessive in an episode of Radio Chatter, an “airborne talkshow expertise” that options interviews with outstanding individuals whereas seated in a Cessna 172 plane, with Youtube present host/pilot Mat Mosveen. The Adair episode, debuted in Might, concerned a clear-skies flight above the lakes and snow-capped mountains of Garibaldi Provincial Park, northeast of Squamish.
• In Newton’s city centre in June, Surrey’s very first Automobile Free Day occasion featured a variety of music and dance performers together with Ashleigh Ball, daysormay, DESTINEAK and others, plus distributors, meals vehicles, a beer backyard and extra. It was an enormous hit, as individuals stuffed 137 Road throughout the Newton BIA-hosted gathering, offered by TransLink and deliberate by MRG Occasions.
Cheers to Jim Trimble, an entertaining Surrey resident who died in Might at age 91. (Photograph: Tom Zillich)
• In Might, at age 91, most cancers claimed Surrey’s “Diamond” Jim Trimble, who cherished to entertain crowds later in his life. Identified for his booming voice, nice head of hair and mild method, Trimble helped launch The Vaudevillians seniors leisure troupe and, extra not too long ago, the Bare Stage theatre firm that presents script readings at Newton Cultural Centre.
• It was nice to see Newton’s fledgling Pivot Theatre decide up steam with an rising variety of performs and fundraising occasions (together with one involving drag queens that sparked controversy when pictured on the entrance web page of this newspaper). My introduction to the corporate’s work was “A Late Snow,” the stormy story of 5 homosexual ladies trapped in a cabin in a single day, at Bethany-Newton United Church in November.
• They weren’t staged in Surrey, however I want to say two Arts Membership Theatre Firm performs that stood out this yr — the slapstick, ultra-physical comedy “Peter Pan Goes Improper” at Vancouver’s Stanley theatre, and Farren Timoteo’s hilarious “Made in Italy” on the firm’s Granville Island stage. So good, so humorous, so price seeing in the event that they ever come again (hopefully someplace in Surrey).
• Planners of Surrey’s FVDED within the Park music competition scrambled to seek out new headliners (Excision, Rick Ross) after Grammy-winning American rapper Younger Thug was arrested on gang-related prices south of the border. For the primary time in a few years, the two-day July occasion stuffed Holland Park with ticket-buyers who love hip-hop, R&B and digital music.
• For the primary time in three years, Surrey Fusion Competition attracted hundreds to Holland Park on the weekend of July 23-24. It was the competition’s largest turnout in 15 years, in accordance with the Metropolis of Surrey, though precise attendance is just not recorded on the free-admission occasion. Headliners included Surrey-raised, rising-star R&B duo Manila Gray, notable for a Juno nomination for Breakthrough Group of the 12 months. Again in 2018, the duo have been finalists within the competition’s “Play Surrey” band contest, however misplaced to winner Sleepy Gonzales.
A photograph posted to the “Jurassic Fest Surrey” web page on Fb earlier than the Cloverdale-area occasion was cancelled, in a cloud of controversy and confusion. (File picture)
• Within the yr’s greatest boondoggle, some individuals who purchased tickets for Jurassic Fest Surrey needed their a refund, with no luck. Metropolis officers finally pulled the plug on permits for the dinosaur-themed exhibit, first scheduled for April 1-3 at Cloverdale Fairgrounds’ Agriplex, postponed to Aug. 12-14, then scrubbed altogether. South Africa-based occasion producer David Huni made excuses for the runaround, however ticket-buyers have been lower than impressed (rightly so).
• At Surrey Arts Centre’s Primary Stage in June, the rock present “Queen: It’s a Kinda Magic” was a crowning achievement for a four-piece band fronted by South Africa’s Dominic Warren, who sings Freddie Mercury’s troublesome vocals with near-perfection. Excellent news: The tribute is again on the similar venue subsequent spring, June 6 (examine tickets.surrey.ca for information and seats).
• In July, seeing Baz Luhrmann’s positive “Elvis” film at Guildford’s Landmark Cinemas made for a comfy couple of hours within the theatre’s new “Premiere Seating” — heated recliner seats with energy adjustable headrests, facet desk and coat hook in “a private privateness enclosure,” as the corporate mentioned, for teams of two or three individuals. Sure, please.
• Over the spring and summer time, drummer John Cody had the massive job of shifting his 200,000-item document and DVD assortment from one home to a different in South Surrey. Amongst his almost 200 band gigs over time is the present one led by his spouse, rock singer Lee Aaron. “She will get overwhelmed by all of this, and she or he’s not a collector in any respect,” Cody revealed.
• On Nov. 12, it was enjoyable to listen to the Rogers Enviornment-rocking Bryan Adams discuss his temporary time residing in Surrey. Through the homecoming live performance, earlier than he performed an acoustic “Straight From the Coronary heart,” Adams saluted his mom Jane within the crowd and advised the story of “getting the shit kicked outta me a few instances” whereas residing within the Guildford space within the late-Seventies.
• July was a magical month for lifelong Surrey resident Billy Hsueh, who turned president of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Magicians at a conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Based 100 years in the past, the Missouri-based IBM is taken into account the world’s largest group devoted to the artwork of magic, with almost 15,000 members in 88 international locations. “It simply feels actually good to symbolize a corporation that I’ve been a part of since I used to be, like, 11, and having the ability to give again, as a lot as I can, for every part this group has accomplished for me.”
• Nonetheless displaying at The Museum of Surrey is the “Surrey on Display screen” exhibit, opened Aug. 18 for a more in-depth have a look at town’s filming historical past. Costumes, pictures, props and different film-related objects function Surrey-shot exhibits together with Smallville, Supernatural, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Superman & Lois, IZombie and extra. Curator Colleen Sharpe and museum employees assembled the exhibit with the assistance of an archives staff with Warner Bros. Discovery, the Metropolis of Surrey’s movie workplace and Cloverdale BIA. The exhibit is price a glance earlier than it closes in April.
• In Phoenix, it was a profitable September efficiency for Surrey-based Westcoast Concord Refrain, which earned a sixth-place medal on the prestigious Candy Adelines Worldwide contest. The Anne Downton-led refrain’ achievement was celebrated after greater than two years of Zoom rehearsals, adopted by out of doors rehearsals, indoor rehearsals in hula hoops, masking and COVID cancellations. Bravo!
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