It’s the last day of the Halifax Fringe Festival
It’s your last chance to catch one of the 60-plus shows being presented at the Halifax Fringe Festival as the 11-day event comes to an end. Be sure to check out some of the artists after the festival is over—a fair few of them have other shows and projects coming down the line that…
Two days left to the Halifax Fringe Festival—here’s what’s happening.
We have two days left of awestriking performances across the city as part of the Halifax Fringe Festival. If you haven’t, be sure to check out what shows are playing as the festival begins to wrap up. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to offer in terms of arts…
Friday at the Halifax Fringe Festival
The weekend is here, and with it comes a collection of performances put on as part of the Halifax Fringe Festival. This may be your last chance to see some of these shows, so be sure to come out and show your support. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has…
Thursday at the Halifax Fringe Festival
As the weekend approaches, so too does the end of the Fringe Festival, although we still have four more fun-packed days of shows and performances to enjoy. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to offer in terms of arts and culture. Theatre plays, musical performances, circus acts and comedy…
Wednesday at the Halifax Fringe Festival
Another day, another lineup of fantastic performances across the city as part of the Halifax Fringe Festival. Although we’re halfway through the week, the festival shows no signs of slowing down. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to offer in terms of arts and culture. Theatre plays, musical performances,…
Tuesday at the Halifax Fringe Festival
It’s Tuesday, and the Halifax Fringe Festival just keeps getting stronger and stronger with amazing performances by artists from the city and beyond. It also marks the start of Sticky Business, which will be played throughout the week at the Cambridge Battery. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to…
Monday at the Halifax Fringe Festival
The Halifax Fringe Festival is in full swing with a week of amazing performances ready to be watched across the city. The Neptune theatres are closed today, but the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Bus Stop Theatre and performances with their own venues will still be ongoing. The Fringe is a time to celebrate…
It’s day four of the Halifax Fringe Festival and here’s every show happening
It’s officially day four of the Halifax Fringe Festival. Art lovers of all kinds can relax and unwind with a litany of shows produced by local artists. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to offer in terms of arts and culture. Theatre plays, musical performances, circus acts and comedy…
Day three of the Halifax Fringe Festival is stacked with shows
Welcome to day three of the Halifax Fringe Festival! The weekend ramps up with more shows, which means more amazing, locally-produced art for you to enjoy. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to offer in terms of arts and culture. Theatre plays, musical performances, circus acts and comedy routines…
What you need to know about Habitat for Humanity’s Huge House Party
The second annual Habitat for Humanity Huge House Party is scheduled to go down on Friday, Sep. 20, and there’s plenty to be excited about. The event raises money for Habitat for Humanity Nova Scotia, which is currently in the process of constructing two homes and has several other projects planned for next year.…
What’s happening on day two of the Halifax Fringe Festival
It’s officially day two of the Halifax Fringe Festival, a celebration of art that brings over 60 events across six different venues every year. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to offer in terms of arts and culture. Theatre plays, musical performances, circus acts and comedy routines come together…
Back to school will suffer from teacher shortage warns new teachers’ union president
At the beginning of August, Peter Day began his two-year term as the new president of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union, which represents over 10,000 active members. These are public school teachers from Pre-Primary through to Grade 12, and special education teachers. Day tells The Coast that beginning his presidency feels “very similar to heading…
New immersive art installation puts you in the spotlight
Two things I did not expect to have happened as I rolled up to The Craig Gallery in Alderney Landing this week: to walk a red carpet and to receive an award (albeit one I gave myself). But that’s the experience everyone will get at Celine Gabrielle’s new art show, I’M A WINNER/LOSER BABY—a playful…
Halifax Fringe Festival kicks off today—here’s what’s going on
Artists and art lovers all over the city will be busy as the Halifax Fringe Festival starts today. The festival will present over 60 shows at six different venues, with some creatives even bringing their own. The Fringe is a time to celebrate all that Halifax has to offer in terms of arts and…
Shared trauma bonds two hockey players in this Halifax Fringe Fest play
One is a Canadian hockey player trying to make it big, in part to win the attention of his alcoholic father. The other is a Ukrainian hockey player, who wishes to bring his father to Canada and away from the war. Both junior A players have the same goal: to make the NHL draft.…
Halifax does not value librarians
Even though the ongoing strike by Halifax’s librarians might indicate otherwise, the city of Halifax is supposed to be a great place to work. The HRM’s bureaucracy frequently wins awards as one of Canada’s top 100 employers. One of the big reasons Halifax wins so much is that the HRM is an employer that embodies…
Credit union giving away cash prizes to help students with tuition
Every little bit counts when helping students pay college or university tuition fees. According to a Statistics Canada table on tuition fees, Nova Scotia undergraduate students from Canada paid the highest tuition fees in the country in 2023/24, at an average cost of $10,548. That’s nearly 50% more than the national average. Since 2018, the…
Your guide to all the shows at the 2024 Halifax Fringe Festival
If you want to see art that’s deliberately expressive, interesting or just downright weird, the Halifax Fringe Festival is for you. Unrestrained from any means of censorship, the Fringe Festival stages are a place where artists can put on whatever they’ve been working on, no matter the content. Over 11 days, Wednesday Aug. 28…
Dal’s orientation is nearly upon us
Orientation week, dubbed O-Week, starts for incoming Dalhousie University students this Thursday, Aug. 29. It’s a jam-packed week deserving of its own website. Last year’s O-Week saw over 2,000 students attend its larger events, the vice president of student life for the Dal Student Union, Ana Patton, tells The Coast. “This year, we’d like to…
Families on assistance getting payment for back-to-school supplies
Nova Scotia families who receive income assistance will automatically receive an increase to their Aug. 29 payment, meant to help with the cost of school supplies for their children. As the Department of Community Services announced on Aug. 6, the increase will extend to families with kids starting in Pre-Primary this fall. According to the…
City needs help to punish delinquent developers
The regularly scheduled Halifax Regional Council meeting of Tuesday, August 20 was dominated by wildfire. In the Committee of the Whole section of the meeting, councillors got a report about last year’s Upper Tantallon fire from the Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency Department. The report is the result of HRFE’s internal after-action policies, which they…
Lessons of the Tantallon wildfire one year later
Fires need four things to exist, and last year on May 28, 2024, Halifax was a tinderbox waiting to explode. When the temperature gets high and the humidity gets low, it’s easier for fire to stay burning. This condition, known as crossover, is occurring more frequently as the earth’s climate changes. When there hasn’t been…
Pay-what-you-can school lunch program starts feeding kids in October
A long-awaited provincial lunch program for school students is nearly here. At a media announcement on Friday Aug. 23, Nova Scotia’s minister of education and early childhood development, Becky Druhan, called the pay-what-you-can program “historic.” “This is about, day-to-day, ensuring our students are healthy, focused on learning, with full bellies, ready to tackle the day,” said…
Angry property owner taking public land hostage? Dartmouth Cove isn’t the first time
Months after Transportation Canada said it would rescind its approval of a pyrite infilling project in Dartmouth Cove, Atlantic Road Construction and Paving Ltd. installed barriers blocking the nearby trails on Wednesday—a threat that ARCP will start work despite a lack of approval. It began with ARCP installing a safety fence. Later on Wednesday,…
Student housing help: a resource list
What are your options if you are a student looking for housing in Halifax two weeks before the fall semester begins? First option: on-campus housing; MSVU, Dal and AST have a few rooms left. Of the seven colleges and universities in Halifax, all but one—NSCAD—have student accommodations. However, as of Thursday, Aug. 22, most of…
The future is the new nostalgia
Hearing Rich Aucoin’s voice on the phone takes me back. To Mr. Seely’s Grade 11 English class, to dozens of house parties and dances with Ja Rule and Nelly—of course—to Aucoin’s very first show at the late, great Tribeca in 2007. In a lot of ways, he and I grew up together, and despite the…
Indie rock vets Dog Day revel in the noise on new record
Seth Smith thought he was done with music. The lead vocalist for Halifax-based Dog Day had been crafting melancholic indie rock tunes with his wife Nancy Urich and a rotating cast of band members since before Dog Day’s 2007 debut, Night Group. But after their 2013 record Fade Out, Smith succumbed to the burnout…
How bad is the housing market for university students?
Student Housing NS is a non-profit housing provider that recently switched to supporting and advocating for the housing needs of students province-wide. The group also leads research into student housing needs to develop support. Right now, they’re asking all postsecondary students in Nova Scotia to complete a five-minute survey on the realities they face when…
‘We need help now’ say support workers about school violence report
The first day of school is fast approaching for students and educators alike. This is why the union representing 5,000 school support workers essential to everyday learning—the Canadian Union of Public Employees—is demanding action from the provincial government to make their workplaces safe to return to. On Thursday, Aug. 15, CUPE Nova Scotia and the…
Last chance for you to vote for Music Nova Scotia’s Entertainer of the Year
Nova Scotia Music Week is fast approaching, as is the closing date for voting on this year’s awards: this Thursday, Aug. 22. Happening from Nov. 7-10 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia Music Week will see musicians and industry professionals from around the province gather to celebrate all they’ve accomplished over the last year—and there’s a…
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Celebrate the Revitalization of Spring Garden Road at Our Street Party!
Mark your calendars and get ready to revel in the vibrant energy of Spring Garden Road! On August 24th, from 11 am to 2 pm, join us for a spectacular Street Party stretching from Queen Street to South Park Street. It’s a celebration like no other, showcasing the newly revitalized Spring Garden Road and the…
The fight for proper pedestrian infrastructure in Halifax continues
Marooned bus stops. Access roads with no sidewalks. Pedestrians forced to walk alongside moving traffic. Safety advocate Martyn Williams is a witness to all of this as he documents the lack of pedestrian infrastructure throughout Halifax that puts people’s lives at risk daily. Williams has been highlighting sidewalk issues across the city on his…
Pollinator and community gardens at Dal to host artist residencies, upcoming show
The Black to the Roots artist residency has officially begun. Six artists were recently selected to curate a group show in a pair of community gardens at Dalhousie University, with the resulting works to be exhibited this October. Both gardens are active growing spaces, allowing artists to rethink the gallery setting and extend community engagement…
Treaty Space Gallery opening soon in newer, bigger space
The Treaty Space Gallery, a part of NSCAD’s Anna Leonowens Gallery system, has a new and bigger location at 1887 Granville Street that will be open in September. “I’m most excited to transform the new space into, not only a gallery where people can exhibit work, but also an Indigenous Student Centre,” says exhibitions coordinator…
The unfareness of raising Halifax Transit fees
The city of Halifax takes fiscal responsibility seriously, but only when it wants to punish people for doing the right thing. This is why bus fares are going up 9.1% to $3 as of September 1, 2024. For those who may need the refresher, this 25-cent fare increase has been in the works since last…
At least four African Nova Scotian students get scholarships at Peace Basketball Tournament
The annual Peace Basketball Tournament is back for its sixth year with 20 teams competing on courts across Halifax over Aug. 22-25. The tournament continues the legacy of the former provincial Black Invitational Basketball Tournament, which stopped over a decade ago after running for 40 years—but which was a rallying force in bringing people together…
Making the case for more red tape
It’s no secret that Canadian governmental bureaucracies are mind-numbingly complex. It’s one of the big reasons that politicians are having a lot of success taking political potshots at all three levels of Canadian public service. The Conservative Party of Canada has put out press releases saying that it will build homes by cutting bureaucracy. Provincial…
New housing bursary at MSVU for students affected by war
The Mount Saint Vincent University Student’s Union is asking students affected by ongoing war and conflict worldwide to submit a two-page application for access to a new housing bursary. From now until noon on Aug. 27, current Mount students can find the bursary application on the MSVUSU website here. According to the form, the $12,475…
Farmers’ Markets of NS director says “a full spectrum approach” is needed for buy local program
Farmers’ Markets of Nova Scotia director Justin Cantafio is excited by the recently introduced Nova Scotia Loyal, but that excitement is limited by the current scope of the buy local program. Announced last month by the province, the Nova Scotia Loyal program will see Sobeys customers receive extra Scene points for one week a…
Forest school in Halifax started by parents who saw it benefit their son
You know the sensationalized old adage, “When I was your age, I had to walk to school uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow?” Well, maybe there’s more to it than reminding kids how easy they have it. Parents and co-founders of the Tideview Nature School in Halifax, Jessie Zhao and Mikel L’Italien, have found…
Political jabs and lots of laughs expected from Nick Beaton’s Halifax gig
Nova Scotia’s Nick Beaton is returning home from Toronto for a special series of shows at Halifax Yuk Yuk’s on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 9-10. The politically-charged comedian is hot off the release of his first comedy special, Geriatric Millennial, where Beaton takes shots at both the left and right for their perceived faults…
Why you should keep watching the Olympics after they’re over
The Paris 2024 Olympics are coming to a close this Sunday, Aug. 11, with women’s basketball as the final event that day. The Games have shown us—once again—that sport embodies a mixture of the good, the bad and the neutral. Team Canada has had many highs, including the historic silver medal win by the women’s…
International conference on intersection of science, philosophy, learning on now in Halifax
The Circulating Knowledge: 20 Years On international conference, presented by the University of King’s College, began Wednesday and runs until Saturday, Aug 10. A list of speakers and events can be found here. “The conference is an opportunity for people to look at how knowledge moves around, globally, across cultures, and that it’s not a…
Point Pleasant Park still an option for homeless encampments
Correction: Although two members of council are running for mayor in the October 19, 2024 election, the following story as originally published only mentioned the candidacy of one of them. That lack of full context has been fixed, and we sincerely apologize for the oversight. (August 8) Councillor Pam Lovelace proposed a motion during Tuesday’s…
Would you make a good French school board member, councillor or mayor?
The elections are coming to town this October, and there’s still time to run for a seat on the Halifax Regional Council or the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial Council. The CSAP is the French-language school board—the only school board in the province—and its board members are elected every four years at the same time as…
Halifax to host the next Canada Pride festival
The Halifax Pride Society has been announced as the hosts of Canada Pride for 2027. Every two or four years, a pride organization from across the country is chosen to host Canada Pride, awarded by Fierté Canada Pride. The announcement came during the recent Canada Pride event in Vancouver, which took place from Aug.…
Bar, restaurant, some festival staff have until Dec 1 to complete newly mandated safe serving training
On Tuesday, bartenders, servers and certain festival staff serving alcohol across the province were given a deadline of Dec. 1 to complete the Serve Right Responsible Beverage Program, offered by the Nova Scotia Tourism Human Resource Council. The Serve Right program costs $69-$85 to complete online. It can also be made available in person, Service…
2024 Best of Halifax Nominations Open
The Olympics are winding down this week in Paris, but here at home the medal hunt is only getting started. Nominations just opened for the 30th annual Best of Halifax Readers’ Choice Awards, meaning you—and other Coast readers like you—get to pick the people, places and businesses that go for BOH gold, silver and bronze.…
Halifax to start environmental stewardship of watersheds
The city’s Environment and Sustainability Committee met on the first day of August, and started that meeting with two presentations before moving on to their agenda of making sure we have enough clean drinking water. The first presentation was from LungNSPEI, which gave the committee a look at the dangers of radon, the second-leading cause…