Varies
according to venue hours

This event is SOLD OUT!
Admission is by donation/pay what you can, and we suggest a donation of $10.
Reservations are highly recommended as most concerts during the festival sell out.
Please email
askus@riverartsfestival.ca to reserve.

But this reading of Collett belies the restless, curious spirit that he’s exhibited throughout his solo career outside of Broken Social Scene. For someone who’s been a fixture on the Toronto live-music circuit for two decades, you could totally understand if an artist of Collett’s experience and vintage settled into a country-rock comfort zone, and kept strumming the same ol’ songs until his ears gave out. But at the core of Collett’s big brotherly wisdom is the idea that, the older you get, the more you realize there’s still so much to learn...read more

Doors 6:30
Event 8:00pm

Culinary Arts Night - This year our chefs are:
Twisted Lemon- Dan Megna (Cayuga), Sunflower Cafe - John Jacysyn (Selkirk), River's Edge Restaurant - Debbie Davies (Dunnville Golf and Country Club)
Flyers Cafe - Cheryl Bishop (Dunnville).
Tickets are $50/person limited to 60 people

Also featuring a silent auction!

Bohemian Friday 223 Queen St.

Derek’s next album ‘Derek Miller with Double Trouble’ takes us to the heart of Native Americana romanticism. It uses vintage tones and aesthetics of 50’s rock and roll with a modern twist, telling the story of a mythical man who has a blind moment of insanity and the events that got him to that point. The development in his newest recordings describe in a metaphoric way, the trials and tribulations of the artist...read more

David Francey Burning Bright - a documentary film by Tony Girardin
Born in Scotland, David Francey came to Canada a lad of twelve. Raised with working-class values, he spent most of his life as a labourer. All the while, David chronicled his times in countless songs that he wrote on the job or while driving to work, for years keeping them private. When friends and family finally pushed him to share his songs with the public, the response was overwhelming and David soon found himself embarking on a new career. Now touring the world with mnay albums and numerous awards to his name, David Francey's star is burning bright. film website

Escarpment Blues - Juno award winning documentary film by Andy Keen featuring Sarah Harmer and her band
It started as an idea for a walking tour. It became a celebration of the land. Join Sarah Harmer and her band on their "I love the Escarpment" tour along the beautiful Niagara Escarpment. Featuring intimate performances special guests, candid backstage footage and interviews that address key issues surrounding Harmer's quest to protect a World Biosphere Reserve. Here is one of Canada's most important singer/songwriters captured in a documentary for the first time. sarah harmer website

As a part of Dunnville Rotary River Arts Festival DREAM is pleased to present "Cultivating Peace on 11/11/11" a special evening of reflection.

This event will feature a short play titled "Security Blanket" performed by the DREAM Theatre of Tomorrow students and as well as music, poetry and discussion sure to inspire the participants to engage in an organic intergenerational dialogue on how to cultivate peace.

"Cultivating Peace" will be hosted at Shared Harvest Community Farm & Educational Centre www.sharedharvestdunnville.com starting at 7pm. . In an attempt to make peace with nature and its people we will be serving organic and fair trade treats!!!

Tickets can be purchased by calling 905 774 8601
(proceeds to DREAM, learn more about the DREAM program here)

Shared Harvest Community Farm
834 North Shore Dr. Dunnville

Andrea's Master Class will have a limited number of spaces. You must pre-register by calling 905-772-7000
or send and email to:askus@riverartsfestival.ca
Add supplies and MUST pre-register by calling HAW and leaving a message…

Supplies participants must bring are:16X20 drawing pad with a hard surface to work on OR an easel
drawing supplies (pencils AND/OR conte crayon, charcoal
blending stumps, kneadable eraser, sharpener)

Andrea's most recent projects reflect the woman she is. Her incredible personal energy, a powerful sense of humour, and an immense passion for life and all it offers...all reverberate through the subjects she chooses to illustrate in a photo-realist style. From amusing to eccentric to the truly grotesque, she explores what makes humanity smile, think, or experience a slight chill....all beautifully and rendered in the graphite she loves so much.

In June of 2010, Andrea took a month off her"day job" and took part in an episode of Bravo's STAR PORTRAITS. The program features three portrait artists competing to have their work chosen by a "star" subject.

Visit Andrea's artist profile/interview page at Star Portraits to learn some more

Local Music Night! hosted by Rob Lamothe
Join us one of our favourite nights, Flyer Cafe's legendary Local Music Night (Open Stage) Donations of cash or non-perishable food items for the Salvation Army Foodbank are requested. You don't have to register in advance, just show up and put your name in the fishbowl. Names will be called as they are drawn from the bowl! Each artist can perform two songs.

Workshop: Exploring "the book" as both the subject and the object in art making. With Dr. Tracey Bowen, an artist/researcher and lecturer in the Institute of Communications, Culture and Information Technology at the University of Toronto.

An innovative, experimental approach to 3 dimensional art using “the book” as either subject and object in art.

Dr. Tracey Bowen is an artist/researcher and lecturer in the Institute of Communications, Culture and Information Technology at the University of Toronto. Her research primarily explores visual literacies in relation to visualizing research processes through drawing, mapping and marking. She also writes about the visual-ness of everyday life, with a particular focus on graffiti as an unsanctioned text in the physical world and as the subject of 21st century digital archiving. Bowen’s artistic practice employs the act of drawing as a way of thinking through ideas and creating new language systems. She is also very interested in “the book” as both a subjective concept for creating work and a physical object to be explored through art making. Her published works include “Reading gestures and reading codes: The visual literacy of graffiti as both physical/performative act and digital information text” In Monika Raesch (Ed.), Mapping Minds, Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press; Cultural Production in Virtual and Imagined Worlds, co-edited with M. L. Nemanic, Cambridge Scholars Press; “Drawing within the Chiasm” in Tracey: Contemporary Drawing Research, Loughborough University; “Making art in a digital/cyber culture: exploring the dialectic between the manual creator and the digital self," Digital Creativity; and "Graffiti art: A contemporary study of Toronto artists" in Studies in Art Education. Her drawings can be viewed through the Drawing Center Viewing Program at: http://www.drawingcenter.org/viewingprogram/index.cfm by searching Tracey Bowen.

Monday
November 14

Admission is by donation/pay what you can, and we suggest a donation of $10.
Reservations are highly recommended as most concerts during the festival sell out.
Please email
askus@riverartsfestival.ca to reserve.

The Abrams Brothers and Oh Susanna in Concert!

The Abrams Brothers With the release of Northern Redemption, The Abrams Brothers – John, James, and cousin Elijah- make a transition from the music of their roots to their own distinct sound. It’s a combination of bluegrass, country and folk-rock that’s had Canadian media up in arms over their potential.

The Abrams Brothers are fourth-generation musicians with musical roots reaching back to their great-grandparents. And despite their age, veteran is certainly not a word out of reach given their credits. They’ve been touring together for almost a decade – and in the past few years, have become Canadian festival favorites. In 2005, the Ontario-based group became the youngest Canadians to appear on Nashville’s iconic Grand Ole Opry. They’ve toured Europe, and several times have performed for the Jacob’s Ladder Folk Festival in Israel. In 2006, the band received the Daniel Pearl Memorial violin, given to especially gifted young musicians. read more

Oh Susanna When Oh Susanna first dreamed of making music, she wanted to create songs that would stand the test of time – just like the Stephen Foster classic from which she takes her name. With the release of her sixth album, SOON THE BIRDS, she has again achieved this dream with a collection of enduring songs that resonate deeper and deeper upon each listen. Her voice, always a marvel, is a haunting, expressive instrument that she uses to stunning effect on SOON THE BIRDS, a beautifully rendered album by an artist who has realized the full power of her voice as a narrative songwriter. read more

Female Canadian Songwriter Tribute Night -
A tribute to the songs written by some of our favourite Canadian songwriters, who just happen to be female, hosted by Brennagh Burns. If you'd like to be considered to perform a song, please email askus@riverartsfestival.ca and indicate which song you'd like to perform. Spaces are limited, so get in touch as soon as you can!

“I was born on November 12, 1967 in the historic town of St. Andrews, Scotland. A university town that hugs the east coast and is renowned for its Old Course, a mecca for all golfing enthusiasts. I immigrated to Canada in the spring of 1971 and my family settled in the small town of Dunnville, Ontario.

I was educated locally and later attended Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario where I studied Business Administration, majoring in Marketing.

I have been writing since an early age, my desire to put pen to paper was strongly encouraged by my talented father. I am a member of The Horror Writer's Association and my main interests are horror and science fiction, but I also enjoy good suspense thrillers as well as comedy crime novels. Recently, I've also started dabbling in writing Motion Picture Screenplays.

Writers who have influenced me in my work are; Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Richard Laymon, Michael Slade, Robert R. McCammon, Donald E. Westlake, Tom Sharpe, and Lawrence Block. If I can attain a small measure of their success, I will be more than satisfied. Let's keep our fingers crossed.”

Evening also features a special guest appearance from David Powell, an exchange student from England performing a short, one-man play. David was born and in a small town just outside of London, England. He is a modest actor who can boast a string of successful performances with The Ark Theatre Company, landing leading roles in each of the last three company headline shows: A Handbag, It Snows and Cloud busting, as well as notable appearances in versions of Jim Cartwright's Two and as Arturo Ui in The Resistable Rise of. David has performed at intimate but respectable theatres such as The Welwyn Garden City Barn Theatre, The Palace Theatre and The Ark Theatre, while also acting in National Festival performances at modern venues such as The Depot Center, Finchley. Adding the esteemed River Arts Festival to that list and performing a monologue based on Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem of the same name, Tithonus, David Powell portrays a soldier tortured between the struggles of life in war.

Saturday
November 19

LMT Connection in Concert!
"celebrating 22 years of the funk around the world 1989-2011"

Seldom are we in the presence of people that command music. Niagara-based funk and soul trio LMT CONNECTION are true masters of their craft. Dynamic. Electrifying. Inhuman. But looking at their history, even briefly, one might expect that. Theyve been together for 17 years and recorded four albums. They've played over 4000 shows, toured Europe six times over the past two years and most recently, t...hey were invited to open for the legendary BB King. Twice. read more