Every big show coming to Halifax (and beyond) in 2024
Thanks to some medical issues that sidelined a big part of The Coast’s tiny staff for most of 2024, this year’s list of major shows—music, theatre, comedy and events—suffered. But we’re trying to wrap the year on a strong note, and have already started the 2025 edition, so we hope you’ll still let us know…
These are the 11 albums and EPs from Halifax artists you need to hear this year
The secret has long been out about Halifax’s music scene. Since the “Halifax pop explosion” of the early 1990s, industry ears and those looking to beat the crowd have turned to see what’s happening in our small Atlantic outpost. (Hell, The Coast’s first-ever issue included a profile of alt-rockers jale.) That attention has waxed and…
Halifax’s 2023 in food and drink—from the sweet to the sour
Things are never static in the world of food, are they? After Halifax’s cafe, bar, restaurant and corner store scene brought us a full-blown pizza war, a kitchen labour shortage and a buffet table of new waterfront restaurants in 2022, you’d be forgiven for thinking that 2023 couldn’t possibly keep pace. Could it? If only.…
Dalhousie delegation of ocean researchers has big presence at COP28
What insights into climate change does the ocean hold? What solutions can it offer for life on a warming planet? None if we don’t have the means to listen. The Dalhousie University-based Ocean Frontier Institute—OFI—is opening up global conversations on ocean observation during the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on…
Charlotte Cardin’s pop tour de force comes to Halifax
Pick a moment from Charlotte Cardin’s meteoric rise from Montreal songstress to global starlet—there are plenty of them. You could start with May 15, 2022. That was the night the 29-year-old took home four JUNO Awards for her album Phoenix—more than any other Canadian artist that evening, including The Weeknd, who had performed at the…
The saga of Otago Drive part 3: Unsafe by design
To recap earlier chapters of this special three-part feature, part 1 answered the question “Who cares about a speed hump?” and yesterday, part 2 explored “Halifax’s plan for a strategic bankruptcy.” We hope you enjoy today’s conclusion. The city of Halifax streams almost all of its meetings. This is helpful on weeks when life is…
Holiday events happening in Halifax to boost your spirits
W hat better way to celebrate the holiday season than by supporting local? Whether you’re in the mood for theatre, music or shopping, Halifax is teeming with events over the next few weeks. Let The Coast guide you through all the happenings so you can curate your perfect December calendar. If you know of any…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s Nov. 28 meeting
After a brutally long offseason, we are now back at everyone’s favourite time of year. That’s right, it’s budget season! We’ll cover that in (a lot) more detail below in the Notable Debates section, but for now let’s get on with the standard recap of Tuesday, November 28’s standard council session. This meeting started off…
How Halifax turned Run the Burbs’ Chris Locke into a comedian
If not for academic probation, Chris Locke might never have gotten into stand-up comedy. Before Run the Burbs, TallBoyz and the Baroness von Sketch Show, and longer still before his starring role in the Atlantic crime caper Who’s Yer Father?, the 45-year-old comedian was on thin ice after a year of general arts studies at…
The saga of Otago Drive part 2: Halifax’s plan for a strategic bankruptcy
In case you missed it yesterday, part 1 of this special three-part feature answered the question “Who cares about a speed hump?” Read on for part 2, and be sure to come back tomorrow for part 3, “Unsafe by design.” According to city staff, the speed hump on Otago Drive was built in service of…
Wintersleep’s Paul Murphy has a new POSTDATA album and Halifax show
The first keyboard chords build with intensity before Paul Murphy’s tenor filters into the song’s frame. It’s a voice you’ve heard before: One that lights up that innermost part of your ear, like the first crackle of a needle on vinyl. A good voice—a great one, even. The kind of voice that commands JUNO accolades…
The saga of Otago Drive part 1: Who cares about a speed hump?
The first chapter in a three-part series that continues tomorrow and Friday. Protected from the cold bite of the wind by the windshield, the clear blue sky looks extra clean, the way it sometimes does in the winter. It fills your view as you crest Breakheart Hill. The steep hill got the name because it’s…
A Coast Guard icebreaker arrives in Halifax Harbour this week
The Jean Goodwill offshore tugboat and icebreaker arrived at Halifax’s Richmond Terminal at the start of the week. The 84-metre-long Canadian Coast Guard ship came in from Botwood, NL, and before that, St. John’s, where it had been stationed since the start of November. The ship is named for a late Cree nurse and Order…
Yeah Yeahs Pizza and 2 Crows Brewing are coming to Halifax’s west end—and sooner than you think
Josh Nordin can’t quite part with the VHS tapes. Nor, perhaps, the crayoned-over paper plates. If you set foot in Yeah Yeahs Pizza’s Barrington Street or Ochterloney Street shops over the past six years, chances are you aren’t ready to part with them, either. They’re part of the lore of the place—the literal walls, as…
Volta startup hub starts up in a new space beside City Hall
Atlantic Canada’s tech-startup hub, Volta Labs–or simply Volta–has a history of success, expansion and reimagination that tangentially exposes Halifax’s real estate development explosion over the past decade that has transformed most of the city–especially the downtown core. Volta’s CEO Matt Cooper alludes to these rapid changes that favour some development over others when he says:…
Advertiser Content
Air Transat ramping up holiday flights from Maritimes to southern destinations
As more Maritimers are looking to travel abroad, Air Transat is expanding its international flight service from Atlantic Canada starting next month. Beginning on Dec. 18, the Montreal-based airline will offer up to 20 direct flights per week to 10 destinations in the Caribbean and southern U.S. from Halifax and Moncton until the middle of…
Dartmouth producer DK’s Atlantic Rap Vol. 1 offers a steady dose of boom-bap
What do you get when you take Nas’ Illmatic, Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s Mecca and the Soul Brother, and then bounce them off the walls of a Torbay, NL bedroom studio? The answer, in this case, is producer Darrell Kelloway (better known in rap circles as…
Province to fund much-needed NSCC student housing, but questions remain
Students at four Nova Scotia Community College—NSCC—campuses across the province will soon have help finding housing. On Tuesday, Nov. 21, Nova Scotia’s minister of advanced education, Brian Wong, announced an unspecified funding package to build roughly 270 new beds for NSCC students in Springhill, Kentville, Bridgewater and the Institute of Technology in Halifax. The Halifax…
Israel-Hamas war, global port blockades cloud container ship’s Halifax arrival
The ZIM Atlantic container ship was expected to arrive in Halifax earlier this week, but appears to still be in transit as of Tuesday. The Israeli-owned shipping company has been facing protests in recent weeks for its alleged ties to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Ports, rail lines and ZIM offices have witnessed blockades and demonstrations…
This Halifax restaurant was just chosen as one of Canada’s best
From The Coast’s reader-selected “Best New Restaurant” honours in 1999 to joining a roster of Canada’s best, The Press Gang restaurant and oyster bar has new reason to celebrate. The Prince Street seafood and cocktail hub was just named one of the “Top 100 Restaurants in Canada” by reservation and review platform OpenTable. The honours…
Suspended school board member in Halifax still advocating for French-language education on the peninsula
UPDATE Nov. 22: An English translation of the interview has been added to this story—the text is below, under the original French audio version. It may surprise you to learn that there is no French-language high school on the Halifax peninsula. Not one. Parents, care-givers and students who go to primary school in French inevitably…
Tim Baker misses Halifax. And he misses you, most of all.
Tim Baker is searching for something. What it is, he hasn’t quite managed to pin down. It’s there, at the edge of his imagination, when he picks up a guitar to write a song or a verse, or when he sets off on a months-long tour of mostly sold-out shows across Canada, or Europe, or…
The Grand Parade podcast: How to fix the HRM’s road safety problems, starting today
Municipal engineer Paul Young has a vision for a “major behavioural change” within Halifax: Converting all urban speed limits in the HRM to 30 kilometres per hour. The reason? Not just to lower the likelihood of deadly collisions, which findings resoundingly show drop off significantly compared to 50km/h, but to cut back on things like…
Sprawl is still a problem for Halifax, 20 years after it was flagged as an urgent issue
The Community Planning and Economic Development Standing Committee met on Thursday, Nov. 16, and the only thing they did of consequence was vote on a motion allowing construction companies to pour concrete an additional hour and a half until 9:30 pm. This will go to council for final approval. Councillor Patty Cuttell also kept her…
Police budget discussions finally get started for real
The Board of Police Commissioners met on Wednesday and finally had their initial strategic budget meeting at the third time of asking. That is, three meetings into the police budget deliberation process and the Nov. 15 meeting was the first time the board got to actually see the Halifax Regional Police’s proposed 2024/25 budget rather…
Every big show happening in Halifax (and beyond) in December 2023
Winter is fast approaching, and with it comes a full slate of holiday shows. But that’s far from the only thing on offer in December, with a star-studded lineup including last year’s JUNO winner for “Artist of the Year” and a pair of sold-out shows by former Hey Rosetta! frontman Tim Baker. As always, The…
Halifax’s looming money problems take shape
The Audit & Finance Standing Committee met Wednesday, Nov. 15, to get an update on Halifax’s financial performance in the second quarter of this fiscal year. And there was some good news, as the city’s investments did okay in Q2. The city made $9.6 million from its portfolio during April, May and June 2023, including…
Songwriter series aims to shine spotlight on women, non-binary artists across Maritimes
When Lisa MacIsaac was making a name for herself as a fiddler and singer in Creignish, Cape Breton, she was used to being the only woman in the folk bands she played with. That extended to festival lineups, where the JUNO-nominated artist found herself in concert rooms and on stages with very few faces that…
News of US naval executive officer’s death aboard ship overshadows Halifax visit
Before we get to this week’s harbour comings and goings, there’s a weightier matter to attend to: Monday’s arrival of USS Marinette LCS 25 into Halifax Harbour was met with a sombre follow-up when two defense officials with the US navy confirmed its crew were grieving an apparent suicide. The newly-commissioned combat ship’s executive officer…
Everything you need to know about HRM council’s Nov. 14 meeting
The community announcements that start off every city council meeting are normally pretty dull affairs. Announcing events, shouting-out local constituents who went above and beyond in the community, things of that nature. But at Tuesday’s meeting, councillor Paul Russell used his time to announce a diagnosis of cancer. He told council he expects to make…
Advertiser Content
Atlantic Lottery’s commitment to honouring the needs of their players and communities
As a purpose-driven organization, Atlantic Lottery is committed to putting Atlantic Canadians first and living their corporate values every day. While the organization continues to adapt with the ever-changing gaming industry in order to deliver on both player expectations and their mandate to make a positive contribution to the Atlantic region, their social purpose stays…
Sam Roberts Band chase reinvention—and find it—on The Adventures of Ben Blank
Sam Roberts can write a song anywhere. True story: The down-to-earth Montreal rocker penned his breakout hit, 2002’s “Brother Down,” while living under a friend’s foosball table. (“It’s a memory I’ve tried to repress for the past 20 years,” Roberts jokes, speaking with The Coast over Zoom from his Notre-Dame-de-Grâce studio.) Over a quarter-century-long career…
It’s never been easier to yell at councillors!
One of the recurring complaints about citizen participation at municipal meetings is that it’s hard—logistically and practically taxing—to speak at public meetings. It’s hard for people who work the 9-to-5 grind to speak on a weekday at 10am, 1pm or 6pm. And it’s hard for people on the fringes, the Ecum Secums of the world,…
Jenn Grant brings Champagne Problems to Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
One of Halifax’s biggest album releases of the year gets its on-stage moment next Saturday: On Nov. 25, singer-songwriter Jenn Grant will perform at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium (6101 University Avenue) for the final leg of her three-month Champagne Problems tour. The album, a cross-country collaboration with the likes of Tim Baker, Dan Mangan, Basia…
Fighting for the right to education
A small but loud group of students and progressive organizers met in the cold square of Grand Parade on the morning of Wednesday Nov. 8, to protest astronomical tuition fee increases in their lifetimes. Aideen Reynolds, chairperson of the Canadian Federation for Students Nova Scotia—CFS-NS—emceed the first hour of speeches at the cenotaph in front of…
How to mark Remembrance Day 2023 in Halifax
Looking for somewhere to commemorate Remembrance Day in the city this year? Here’s a guide to all of the official ceremonies happening in the Halifax Regional Municipality this Saturday, November 11. Remembrance Day at the Halifax Citadel Mark the holiday with Parks Canada at the Halifax Citadel starting at 11am. A 21-gun salute at the…
The Wanderer Grounds podcast: Who stays and who goes this Halifax Wanderers offseason?
One year after a near-complete overhaul that saw a coaching change and a carousel of new faces, the Halifax Wanderers are in somewhat unfamiliar territory entering their offseason: For once, the Canadian Premier League soccer club has a roster it would—mostly—like to keep together. Related After a regular season finish that saw the Wanderers set…
Rapper Kardinal Offishall is still ol’ time killin’ onstage—and has no plans of stopping
If Kevin Bacon can have his own six degree rule, then Kardinal Offishall is going to need one, too. There may be no rapper—hell, entertainer—in Canada with quite the same ties across pop music history. Who else but Kardi can say they were part of Rihanna’s first demo tape? Hand-packaged their breakthrough EP in the…
Nova Scotia students join national day of action calling for free and universal access to university education
The Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Federation of Students—CFS-NS—is joining in the Canada-wide day of action for free and universal access to university education on Wednesday, Nov. 8. At 11am, students and supporters will convene at Grand Parade in Halifax as a part of the “Fight the Fees” campaign organized by the national student…
Candlelit concert series to raise funds for Dartmouth’s North Grove community hub
Hear pop music with a classical twist the weekend of Nov. 18-19. For two nights in a row, the Rostova String Quartet—a group of classically trained musicians from Dalhousie’s Fountain School of Performing Arts—will perform covers ranging from Leonard Cohen to Lady Gaga at the Sanctuary Arts Centre (100 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth). The music spans…
Nelly Furtado to host 2024 JUNO Awards in Halifax
From “Maneater” to the Maritimes: One of Canada’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, Nelly Furtado, will host and perform at the upcoming JUNO Awards in Halifax. The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences unveiled the news at a special event at the Marquee Ballroom on Tuesday morning. Halifax will host Canada’s biggest night in music on…
First look at Aroma Maya, Dartmouth’s new donut delight
It’s well past the morning rush when The Coast visits Aroma Maya Coffee + Donuts on a Friday. No matter. The colourful Prince Albert Road bakery and cafe is still brimming with regulars, even by 1pm. One customer orders a four-pack of donuts to go—an Eggnog Glazed, one Funfetti, two Nova Creams. Another eyes the…
All the winners from the 2023 Music Nova Scotia Awards
There’s a new king of music in town: Juno Award-winning trombonist and composer Andrew Jackson took home Musician of the Year honours at this year’s Music Nova Scotia Awards, fresh off a year in which the Halifax artist assisted on Terra Spencer and Ben Caplan’s terrific Old News and David Myles’s It’s Only a Little…
After 12 years of procurement Halifax Transit app is finally here
Halifax Transit got a little bit of good news on Thursday Nov. 2, with the launch of an electronic payment app called HFXGO. It can be downloaded in the Apple store or the Google one. Bus tickets bought with the app can expire before being used—that is a requirement of the software—but if you have…
Women and girls’ soccer players share Canada’s National Team 2-0 win against Brazil
When Dal Tigers coach Cindy Tye started playing soccer in Nova Scotia in the ’70s and ’80s, she had to join a boys’ team. There was no league for girls. “It wasn’t until I was 14 or 15 that I played my first game with all girls,” says Tye. Born in Middleton, Nova Scotia, Tye…
Classified gets introspective on new single, “Wonder”
Judging by his Facebook posts, Luke Boyd—better known as Classified—has been doing his share of reflecting lately, so allow me to indulge for a moment in some of my own. We’ll get to his latest single, the tumbler-of-whiskey-at-night-flavoured “Wonder,” but first, I want to tell you about how a song is like magic. And to…
8 things to see and do in Halifax this weekend (Nov. 3-5, 2023)
The first November chill hasn’t slowed a hot weekend for Halifax happenings. Around the HRM, you’ll find a Halloween pillowcase’s worth of tricks and treats to get up to—from back-to-back evenings of Mooseheads hockey to library jam sessions to a night with one of Canada’s biggest names in country music. Allow The Coast to be…
First glimpse of snow greets last days of cruise season
A snow-blanketed Wednesday afternoon at Halifax’s South End Container Terminal made it harder to see a rather unusual sight: Not a single container ship was in the frequently busy port. And this was on the busiest day of the week in Halifax Harbour, to boot. If it feels like ship traffic is slowing in November, there’s…