Everything you need to know about the 2023 Stages Festival
STAGES Theatre Festival is more than an annual bright star on the calendar of theatre lovers around town, more than simply a stopover a play takes between the Halifax Fringe Festival and debuting at Neptune Theatre. (Though, of course, it’s both those things, too.) See, STAGES is, in its own way, an encapsulation of the…
About that rain in the forecast…
The good news: Environment Canada is predicting a few days of rain for Nova Scotia starting Friday, which can only help fight the various forest fires burning across the province. The bad news: After one of the driest springs on record, parched Nova Scotia will need huge amounts of rainfall to get back to normal.…
UPDATED: Shelburne area wildfires cause closure of Black Loyalist Heritage Centre
The unprecedented wildfires in Nova Scotia continue today, with the burning in Shelburne County now being called one of the biggest wildfires in the province’s history, as Global news reports. As a reported 17,602 hectares of a wooded area in the province’s southwestern pocket continues to blaze, about 5,000 people have been evacuated. Amongst the…
“Far from out of the woods” with Tantallon fire threat, officials say
Provincial forestry technician David Steeves was asked a question about resources during his Thursday morning update from the Tantallon fire response control centre: How confident is Nova Scotia in the tools it has at hand to battle an out-of-control wildfire burning across Upper Tantallon for the fifth straight day? The answer “balances on a razor’s…
Province bans all travel and activity within forests while wildfires continue
Nova Scotia premier Tim Houston did not mince words in his Tuesday afternoon update on the province’s efforts to quell a pair of wildfires in Upper Tantallon and Shelburne County. “Travel and activity in our woods is banned,” Houston said, speaking from Shelburne, where an out-of-control 11,510-hectare blaze has prompted the evacuation of more than…
Support and resources for those affected by the Nova Scotia wildfires
As the news of the wildfires in Tantallon hit social media, the biggest question within Halifax’s online communities quickly became “how can I help?” Now, over 72 hours after the blaze began, every corner of local social media is packed with postings from individuals, families, businesses and other organizations offering whatever they can to help…
DEVELOPING: A timeline of the Upper Tantallon wildfire
It was early Sunday evening in Hammonds Plains, and Karrie-Ann Buchanan and her partner were beginning to worry about wildfire smoke. Plumes of it had been drifting northeast from Upper Tantallon since late that afternoon. It hung over the Woodhaven RV Park they co-own and operate—64 acres of forest and campsites down the road from…
Tuesday winds in Tantallon bring “dangerous” fire risk, officials warn
Brad George was in the midst of his weekly Sunday clean-up when his Highland Park home began to fill with smoke. He could see it, smell it in the air. He looked out the front window. Ash fell on his lawn. Flames licked above the trees across the street. “I could just see this big…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s May 23 meeting
Bit of a shorter summary this week, and a bit late, as keen readers may notice. This is due almost entirely to premier Tim Houston and his Tory government. They continue to insist the striking educational support workers should be happy with starvation wages. Since the workers believe their government jobs should be enough to…
Two Dora-winning playwrights are making a musical about Frenchy’s, the iconic chain of Nova Scotian thrift stores
Update: Since originally filing this story, I heard from a Mr. Dale Fawthrop telling me about the original musical about Frenchy’s he and Ruth Cormier Nichols staged circa 2010 in Amherst. (It was a love story between a shopper and stockiest that, tbh, feels like the sort of thing Kate Hudson would star in, had…
Police, protestors clash at trial over events of August 2021 shelter evictions
In the days, weeks and months to come, Nova Scotia’s provincial courts have a weighty decision to make. At issue: What to make of Halifax’s peninsula-wide encampment evictions on Aug. 18, 2021 that sparked violent police clashes with protestors, ended in mass arrests and brought tempers in a city facing a severe housing crisis to…
Telefilm funds Devour and Halifax Black Film Fest, director Fawaz Al-Matrouk making next flick in Nova Scotia, and more local film and TV news
The big picture in movie-making right now is split-screen in focus: Massive movie deals being made at a record-level-attendee Cannes film festival and the ongoing Hollywood writers’ strike. Cut to Nova Scotia, though, and the scene is different: High season for the film and TV industry is rolling onwards, with film crews across the province…
The original Ray’s Lebanese restaurant is closing after 42 years
Beyond the glass door that leads into Ray’s Lebanese in Dartmouth’s Burnside neighbourhood, restaurant owner Raymond Khattar is bent into a plastic-backed chair and thinking about all the years that came before, along with what still lies ahead. After 42 years of serving Haligonians his signature falafel wraps—a run that cemented the 64-year-old Khattar as…
Everything you need to know about the 2023 Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival
An antidote to the run-of-the-mill movie multiplex; the thing that’ll make your Letterboxd (the Goodreads of movies) profile 10 times cooler; a bunch of outside-the-box films so boundary-pushing we’re already craving popcorn: The Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival is a flick freak’s dream come true, showing features and shorts from around the world and across the…
The Wanderer Grounds podcast: Trouble for HFX Wanderers FC as winless streak extends to six games
In this episode of The Wanderer Grounds, Coast reporter Matt Stickland is joined by Josh Healey of Halifax soccer blog Wanderers Notebook to diagnose HFX Wanderers FC’s struggles after the club’s 0-3 home defeat to York United FC. (Coast reporter Martin was listed as DNP: Nephews for Saturday’s match.) The two discuss what’s working—and not…
Halifax Harbour’s giant crane ship bids farewell to Nova Scotia this week
A familiar sight will soon disappear from Dartmouth’s skyline: On Friday, the 178-metre-tall Orion crane ship is set to depart from the IEL dock at the Woodside Terminal, where it has towered over Halifax Harbour since the beginning of May. Both the Orion and the GPO Grace heavy load carrier have been in port assembling wind…
Have you seen the new mural on Agricola Street?
Some people send a suitcase or two in advance of a cross-country move, but not Jasmin Amoako. Forget checked luggage, never mind a carry-on: When the artist swapped Ontario for Nova Scotia in 2022 (she’s a master’s student at NSCAD), she sent ahead plans for one of the most eye-catching new public art installations on…
The COVID emergency is officially over in Nova Scotia
In the early months of the COVID crisis, Dr. Robert Strang’s daily briefings were a popular and vital source of information for Nova Scotians. Today, Dr. Strang gave his final briefing of the epidemic, announcing the lifting of the province’s last lingering COVID restrictions and stating that COVID’s become an endemic disease akin to the…
Director Thom Fitzgerald makes a new movie, Fawzia Mirza’s directorial feature wraps and more local film and TV news
Temperatures keep heating up in Halifax as summer’s arrival looms, but one corner that’s already red-hot? The city’s film and TV sector, which is riding an ever-rising wave according to statistics from the province (“The film industry contributed about $180.8 million to Nova Scotia’s economy in 2021-22 up from about $78 million in 2019-20 and…
A dispatch from the front lines of the class war: The CUPE strike
On May 10, a beautiful Wednesday morning, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees went on strike. The bulk of the striking workers are educational program assistants, but this strike includes all of the support staff for Halifax Regional Centre for Education schools. These EPAs are people—mostly women—who make sure children with disabilities, or…
Everyseeker 2023 announces first names for festival lineup
Everyseeker—the wild, weird, boundary-pushing music and art festival that always punches above its weight—announced a list of names that’ll be performing at this year’s event in a newsletter it sent out this week. While show details for the fest—which is slated to run from June 14-18—are still TBD, we’re excited at the sight of some…
These Halifax restaurants were voted among Canada’s best
Call your “from away” friends and relatives and tell them there’s proof of what you’ve been saying for years: Halifax’s bar and restaurant scene is pretty damn good—and it’s not just oysters and lobster. Halifax’s food scene is earning rave reviews in this year’s Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list, an annual ranking of the top…
Introducing Dillon the dragon, Miller Lake’s hottest new resident
A fierce new face can be seen floating in Miller Lake. This past Saturday, residents of Fall River gave a warm welcome to Dillon, the newest addition to Miller Lake’s dragon family. Dillon joins Emily, the already iconic dragon who has been residing in the lake for decades. The Coast got to witness the fateful day…
The Screen Nova Scotia awards crowned its 2022-2023 winners
On Saturday night, the who’s who of local film poured into Casino Nova Scotia’s Schooner Room, a sold-out crowd of industry insiders ready to see what Nova Scotian films would be crowned by Screen Nova Scotia’s annual awards. Here’s a recap of who won what: Best Feature Film went to Ashley McKenzie’s second feature, Queens…
Province issues Liquor Control Act charges against Halifax Alehouse after December homicide outside pub
The Halifax Alehouse is facing two Liquor Control Act charges amid ongoing allegations of bouncer violence. The charges stem from an investigation launched in the days after 31-year-old Ryan Michael Sawyer was found “unresponsive” on the sidewalk outside the pub early on Dec. 24, 2022. Sawyer’s death was later ruled a homicide. Related A source…
Halifax’s biggest cruise ship of the year (so far) arrives this week
If you’ve been anywhere near Halifax Harbour in the last two weeks, you’ve seen the Orion crane ship looming over Dartmouth’s skyline. One of the world’s largest offshore construction vessels, it can lift 5,000-tonne loads up to a height of 178 metres—more than twice the height of the Purdy’s Wharf towers. Since Saturday, it’s been…
The Grand Parade podcast: Trish Purdy’s Keyser Söze turn, and why Halifax’s car noise bylaw plans are ineffective
In this episode of The Grand Parade podcast, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman wade into the debate about Halifax’s heel-dragging efforts to curb motor vehicle noise—and why, six years after council sought permission from the province to amend the Motor Vehicle Act, nothing is likely to change anytime soon. Even if, by and…
Wanderers’ draw streak extends to five games after testy 2-2 Calgary result
Watching HFX Wanderers FC’s 2023 Canadian Premier League season is a bit like if every Saturday was a Father’s Day gift: No matter the presentation, the end result is a tie. On May 13, on the road for the soccer club’s second straight match, the Wanderers’ winless woes continued against an equally frustrated Calgary side…
Halifax producer Terry Greenlaw has new film, Wildhood director Bretten Hannam funds new movie, and more in this week’s film news
Another week, another call for “action” on film sets across the city as shooting season heats up. As the local film and TV sector continues to grow—in a press release from last May, the province says “the film industry contributed about $180.8 million to Nova Scotia’s economy in 2021-22”—Team Coast is keeping tabs on new…
What does the Hollywood writers’ strike mean for Nova Scotia film?
The first Hollywood work stoppage in 16 years—the film and TV industry’s first strike since 2007—has brought many productions to a halt, and even late-night shows like Saturday Night Live have gone dark. As the Writers Guild of America—which represents 11,500 TV and film writers, according to The New York Times—goes up against major Hollywood…
Nova Scotia’s primary care waitlist tops 145,000
If there is a bright spot to be drawn from Nova Scotia Health’s latest update on reversing a provincewide primary care shortage, it is this: While a net of 2,741 more Nova Scotians joined the growing waitlist for a family doctor or nurse practitioner in April, the pace of that list’s growth—for one month, at…
Art from the Amazon and the Arctic arrives at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Even though the third floor of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia’s north building is closed to the public, a cacophony of noise fills the space. Competing chanting from two nearby video installations cross over one another, while the adjoining hallway’s vermillion-red walls are loud enough to register over both. Around the corner, a dozen…
A tight Halifax rental market is pushing Haligonians to the margins
There’s a long-running joke about Nova Scotia’s coastal counterpart: BC stands for “Bring Cash.” But a recent survey of rental rates in Canada’s priciest housing markets might soon turn NS into “Need Savings.” No, seriously. According to the latest Rentals.ca report, which compares asking prices of vacant units across Canada, Halifax is the most expensive…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s May 9 meeting
Councillor Trish Purdy demonstrated some ruthless political chops at Tuesday’s HRM council meeting. Purdy has a habit of asking questions that are already answered in the reports given to council prior to meetings. Councillors are expected to read these reports before the meetings. During a debate about selfish idiots making their cars loud, Purdy asked…
Halifax has Broadway fever. Thankfully, Neptune’s here to help satisfy our craving.
It’d be a stretch, really, to say that director Jeremy Webb has lived the real-life version of his latest play, Neptune’s season-closing musical Billy Elliot, the story of a young ballet dancer in 1980s England going against his parents and peers to chase his dream. But it’s no reach at all to say Webb can…
The Wanderer Grounds podcast: Halifax stays undefeated, but also winless—which one is closer to the truth?
In this episode of The Wanderer Grounds, Coast reporters Matt Stickland and Martin Bauman are joined by Alex Sheppard—a HFX Wanderers FC fan, but also a part of local minor soccer organization Suburban FC. The three talk about the Wanderers’ game over the weekend (a nil-nil draw with Winnipeg’s Valour FC). After the recap, Alex…
Comedy saved my life. Seriously.
While a sense of triumph usually waits until the end of a performance, there’ll be a quiet, thrumming victory felt from the moment comedian Alva Sparkles takes the stage at Yuk Yuk’s on May 10. As host and MC of The Best Medicine—a show she created that’s giving all proceeds to the Mental Health Foundation…
An old USSR ship and a massive container ship arrive in Halifax Harbour this week
At times, truth is stranger than fiction. This week is no exception: Halifax Harbour’s ship arrivals include a one-time USSR ship built for tracking satellites, a car carrier operated by a company convicted of running a shipping cartel, another run by a company named in the Paradise Papers leak and a container ship so massive,…
The Beaches announce Halifax concert October 20
Punchy alt-rock powerhouse The Beaches are no stranger to Halifax, confessing from The Seahorse stage back in 2018 that early hit “T-Shirt” was about a guy who was a Dal student at the time. (“Don’t tell him,” vocalist-bassist Jordan Miller added. Sorry to blow the secret now, Miller!) They’ve also played the Scotiabank Centre, warming…
Coastal Cafe blames HRM planning for its closure
Mark Giffin is not looking for a pity parade. Even as the owner and chef behind The Coastal Cafe prepares for his last service in just a few weeks—the building he’s fried thousands of eggs and poured several more thousands of coffees in over 16 years soon to be sold to the HRM to pave…
Halifax wins big at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards
There’s never been a shortage of proof that Halifax is a music city. It’s pouring out of the front door of Gus’ Pub seven nights a week, bubbling up from the basement of the Seahorse every weekend, spilling out onto Argyle Street thanks to The Carleton—and that’s all in a roughly 20 minute walk around…
Slight correction to: HRM lawyers botch legal analysis, delay police reform
It’s time for a bit of a mea culpa. And we need to issue a slight correction to the following story: Related There’s a risk when non-lawyers try to explain the law, and that risk is we may not fully understand what we are saying and may incorrectly explain the legal theory behind a legal…
First look at Walter’s Snack Bar, downtown Halifax’s newest cocktail bar
Jacob Carey Paradis is polishing glasses, peeling oranges and stocking ice when The Coast swings by for a visit on a rainy May afternoon. Despite the gloomy weather, the mood is bright—Anderson .Paak’s Malibu floats over the bar stereo, and Carey Paradis is singing along. It’s been quite the week for the 26-year-old co-manager of…
HRM lawyers botch legal analysis, delay police reform
Corrections on May 4, After the following article was published, it came to The Coast’s attention that the Police Act does indeed explicitly state that a police board “may give advice or direction, in writing, to the chief officer on any matter within the jurisdiction of the board under this Act, but not to other…
Trailer Park Boys wrap and pawnshop guy comes back in this week’s film news
Another week, another call for “action” on film sets across the city as shooting season heats up. As the local film and TV sector continues to grow—in a press release from last May, the province says “the film industry contributed about $180.8 million to Nova Scotia’s economy in 2021-22”—Team Coast is keeping tabs on new…
Everything you need to know about the 2023 Scotia Festival of Music
Thirteen concerts with 19 world-acclaimed musicians across 15 days: the Scotia Festival of Music has spent the last 44 years making Halifax a top destination in the worlds of chamber and classical music. No matter if you’re an expert on the genre or more of a newbie, you’ll find lots to satiate your hungry ears here.…
What is East Coast music, anyway?
It’s a good time to be a music fan in Halifax: From May 3-7, the 35th annual East Coast Music Awards and festival are setting up shop in the city, delivering a hefty dose of live music from every imaginable stage and showcase around. With everything from Halifax-based reggae to PEI art rock on offer,…
Halifax Alehouse bouncers enter pre-trial hearing for assault case
Two Halifax Alehouse security staffers accused of attacking a patron while they were on shift last October are back in provincial court on Wednesday, May 3. Alexander Pishori Levy, 37, and Matthew Brenton Day, 33, will both undergo a pre-trial hearing after pleading not guilty to a pair of assault charges stemming from an incident…
More ship delays in Halifax Harbour this week
The ancient Greeks had a word, kairos, to denote time—specifically, “the opportune and decisive moment.” The North Atlantic Kairos chemical/oil products tanker was projected to arrive in Halifax as early as late Sunday afternoon, inbound from Come By Chance, Newfoundland, but instead—and indeed, by chance—reached Halifax Harbour at the inopportune hour of 11:15pm. That’s on…
Every term you’ve ever needed to know about ships in Halifax Harbour
When we started our Halifax Harbour traffic updates, none of us at The Coast could have predicted that we were birthing a kraken: A weekly feature that would not only prove instantly popular with Haligonians, but also prompt us to delve into far more shipping lingo than any of us thought we’d ever need. (Matt’s…