You won’t want to miss them at Fiddlefest;

The 3rd Annual Car Show, Fiddlefest and Step Dancing competition will be held July 10th in Downtown St. Catharines.  Come out to a fun day with many activities.  People are coming from all over Ontario to compete.  One participant is in town from Brussels to visit family and wants to be a part of the fun.  There will be a barbeque put on by the Silver Spire Church.

Mostly Comics will be featuring a SuperHero day with costumes and great deals.  Come and get your picture taken with the largest Incredible Hulk I’ve ever seen.

Over 300 antique cars and trucks will be parked throughout St. Paul street.  There are bouncy castles for the kids, entertainment by Marty Allan and the Good Rockin’ Tonight band, a street dance from 4-6 pm, square dancing with a real caller, and performances from the Golden Hammers as well as the Rock’n Daisies.

Applications for the fiddle and step dancing contests are available at Ryson’s Studios.  Come out and have a Fiddlin’ Good Time!

There will be several camps available:
•    Rock Band Camp
•    Ukulele Camp
•    Musical Theater
•    Keyboard
•    Brass/Woodwind

The fee for the camps is $35 daily (10:00 am – 4:00 pm) or $125 for Monday-Thursday.  This is a great way to learn to play in a group.

Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to have some musical fun.  Sign up today!

Another winner for the Mini Idol is Kayla McGowan a student at Rysons. All the best to Kayla from all the staff at Rysons and your many friends at the studio.

Rockin Daisies debut was a great success at Lock 8 a great crowd pleaser . Always a rockin good time with the Golden Hammers who keep the audience moving and dancing to the beat.

Especially thanks to our visitors who joined us from Italy relatives of Lucas Venneri.  A big thank you and a round of applause to Cheryl Spada for inviting the Golden Hammers and the Rockin Daisies to perform at your great event, and hope we can join you again next year.

Brian Roman, a Toronto Vocalist, is trying to help out a little boy, Justin Grant, who’s going through a very bad time.

Justin has cancer, and if that wasn’t bad enough, his father died just months ago.

Brian Roman heard about Justin and decided to do a benefit concert to raise funds for him and his mom.  It looks like the concert will be a sell-out and they could raise as much as $100,000.00.

What a wonderful story to share with our music students.  Sure, it’s great that the’re learning to play an instrument for their own enjoyment, or perhaps, they have higher goals. But imagine what our music students can accomplish when they understand how they can actually help people who really need it through their musical talents.

I’ve never met Brian, but he’s obviously a guy with a huge heart.
I hope you’ll join me in applauding his effort to help Justin and if you’re so inclined, you might want to contribute to the Justin Grant benefit. Here’s the story; Justin Needs Our Help.

The Brian Roman Story is a must-read for every music student. You can read it here; Brian Roman.

Brian, if you ever read this I want you to know that you are a credit to the music industry, and I sincerely hope that young musicians everywhere will pay attention not only to your incredible personal story, but to the selfless manner in which you share your talent to benefit those in time of need.

Anne
P.S. I hope everyone who reads this will pass it on to others. You can help Justin by simply letting others know about this story.

Niagara Music events for October and beginning of November:

October 5: Niagara Symphony Association-Elgar’s Celebrated Cello Concerto-Denise Djokec Master 1
October 25th and 26th: Niagara Symphony Tribute to Arthur Fiedler-Zoltan Kalman Pop 1
November 30th: Mozarts Basson Concert- Eric Hall Masters 2 Information: www.niagarasymphony.org
October 18th: Niagara Music Forum- Four Points Sheraton -Saturday 10:00am www.niagaramusicforum.com
October 19th: Heidehof-The Sun Record Story with Dave Tufford at Rysons Studios- show 7:00pm. www.rysonsmusic.com

October 2nd-4th: Styx – Fallsview Casino www.casinoniagara.com
October 9th-10th: Tony Bennet – Fallsview Casino
October 17th: Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone – Fallsview Casino
October 20th-November 2nd: Spirit of Broadway – Fallsview Casino
November 15th-November 30th: Spirit of Christmas – Fallsview Casino

Downtown Association Movies: www.stcathdowntown.com Movies are free, bring a chair. You can bring your own refreshments, or purchase refreshments to help support the Aid Foundation.
October 16th – 7:00pm Ghostbusters 9:00pm Amityville Horror
October 23rd – 7:00pm Young Frankenstien 9:00pm The Excorcist
October 30th-7:00pm Beetlejuice 9:00pm Rocky Horror Picture Show (Props are being sold)

November 15th: Scott Woods Old Time Christmas – 7:00pm Rockway Community Centre – Seasonal Songs, sensational step dancing, smwoods@sympatico.ca

Walking Ghost Tour: Every full moon, walking tour to exlore a history and haunted tails of downtown. 7:00pm through the winter. First One is October 14th. This time it’s at 8:00pm. www.stcathdowntown.com

November 7th: Rysons Goldan Hammers - Grimsby Legion concert for Red Hats Society 7:30pm. www.rysonsmusic.com

Thanksgiving Festival at Balls Falls: October 10th-13th. 10:00am-5:00pm. Many Artisans (140 +) Crafters live entertainment, Heritage tours, festive treats, face painting, many activities for kids. Crafters come from all over. http://www.mestern.net/festivals/ballsfalls/index.php
October 26th: Monster Mash Party at Balls Falls 12:30-3:30 $10.00 per child (age 6-10) Woodcrafts, party, lots of fun!

Have a Great Thanksgiving! Thanks for visiting our event page. Anne

Today, Friday September 5th, the event kicks off at 1:00pm with the first annual Elvis Film Festival. Elvis’s drummer, D.J. Fontana will be on hand for a meet and greet, as will the world famous gospel group, the Stamps Quartet who also performed with Elvis.

Then tonight at 8:00pm the Elvis Extravganza Concert will begin featuring performances from many award winning tribute artists;
Shon Carroll, Selvis, and Douglas Roy to name a few. The finale will feature Anthony Von with the Stamps Quartet.

Douglas Roy is one of our own here in Niagara and one of the most respected Elvis tribute artists in the business. He’s also the only tribute artist ever to have actually performed on stage with the King himself. The story goes that Doug was at an Elvis concert in 1976 when a friend tossed Doug’s latest single recording onto the stage at Elvis’s feet. Elvis picked up the record, read the label, and called Doug up to sing Hound Dog with him.

Douglas Roy’s tribute show, “Douglas” was all the rage in the mid ’70’s, in the days when the real King of Rock ‘n Roll was still alive. More than thirty years later, Douglas Roy is still one of the best tribute artists in the business. Certainly worth seeing his show at the Days of Elvis Festival.

For the full schedule of this weekend’s events, visit;
Days of Elvis website.

This annual 10 day event features many of the world class Niagara wineries proudly showcasing their vintage along with several local culinary establishments.

In addition to great food and wine, the Grape and Wine Festival is filled with excellent entertainment programming.

Over the years many high profile entertainers have taken the center stage at Montebello Park where the main activities are held.

Some of this year’s Grape and Wine Festival attractions will be;
Crash Parallel
Faber Drive
Sarah Slean
The Wheat Kings
The Philosopher Kings
The Caverners
And many more…

Don’t forget the Post Parade show on September 27th @ 2:00pm, featuring Ryson’s rock ‘n roll student band, the Golden Hammers, with Natalie Vurro on vocals. These kids are really terrific and worth catching.

To get a copy of the Official Grape and Wine Festival Guide,
Click Here.