The full list of nominees is here for the 2025 East Coast Music Awards, and Halifax is well-represented. Sixty-seven ECMA nominations—the annual awards celebrating the best of East Coast music—include contributions from Halifax-based artists, engineers, managers and venues this year. That includes nine ECMA shortlist nods for Enfield rapper Classified, whose album Luke’s View earned […]
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Posted inNews + Opinion
What to expect in the audit on university funding
Nova Scotians can once again look forward to reading reports on how the government spends public money. On Monday, premier Tim Houston caved to criticism and reversed course on a bill, specifically the parts of it threatening the independence of the province’s top watchdog, Auditor General Kim Adair. However, Bill 1, as it’s called, still […]
Posted inArts + Music
Halifax’s Eliza Rhinelander finds her voice on debut album
“I don’t know where I’m going to,” Eliza Rhinelander sings on “Massachusetts,” the earnest and clear-voiced opener to the Halifax singer-songwriter’s debut album, The Precipice. “And I’ve never had this much to lose.” Given the 19-year-old folk singer’s trajectory this past year—from a crowdfunded EP to a sold-out show at The Carleton earlier this month—it would […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
“We are not going to get quieter,” advocates vow at march to end gender-based violence
You could hear the voices coming from two blocks away as dozens of demonstrators made their way down Barrington Street on Wednesday, Feb 19, descending on Grand Parade. Shouts of “End the silence, end the violence,” “No excuse for abuse” and “Education is prevention; systemic failures must be mentioned!” reverberated through Halifax’s downtown on the […]
Posted inArts + Music
Every big show coming to Halifax and beyond in 2025
The New Year might have just arrived, but the lineup of shows coming to Halifax in 2025 is already jam-packed. Here we keep track of the major shows—music, theatre, comedy and events—scheduled for the city and around Nova Scotia throughout the year. To help our team of event hunters, we hope you’ll let us know […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
7 burning questions as Halifax Wanderers enter 2025 soccer preseason
Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar has had a busy winter. Two years and three months into his tenure with the Canadian Premier League soccer club, the 49-year-old is approaching the final year of his coaching contract with a familiar challenge: Winning games. It’s a challenge that has, at different times in the Etobicoke, Ont. […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Councillor Purdy asks city about integrating the Integrated Mobility Plan
Halifax’s aspirational and hopefully one-day transformative plan to solve congestion in Halifax got an assist from one of its biggest opponents this week, at Halifax Regional Council’s regular Tuesday meeting. Halifax’s Integrated Mobility Plan has not been implemented very well since first being passed in 2017, because city staff just can’t help themselves from prioritizing […]
Posted inArts + Music
Customer Service has a new EP—and it’ll get your head banging
Owen Harris and Max Hayden were working the customer service desk at Quinpool Road’s Canadian Tire, dreaming about making a record. The longtime friends and next-door neighbours had grown up together where Halifax’s south and west ends meet, bonding over emo and punk music, and jamming as teenagers when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down their […]
Posted inFood + Drink
Two If By Sea Cafe joins Best of Halifax Hall of Fame
Seventeen years ago, amateur baker-turned-entrepreneur Tara MacDonald picked up a new hobby when she moved from Ottawa to Dartmouth: Baking croissants. It wasn’t always a fun hobby. “Temperamental little buggers” is how she referred to her rich and flaky viennoiseries, which she would labour over in her home kitchen, tinkering with butter, salt and flour. […]
Posted inArts + Music
How Aysanabee’s late grandfather sparked the singer-songwriter’s latest tour
Aysanabee isn’t superstitious, but these days he’s having a hard time chalking some things up to mere coincidence. Fresh off an Australian tour, the two-time JUNO Award-winner from Sandy Lake First Nation is embarking on his first headlining trip across eastern Canada. It’s a big moment for the Oji-Cree singer-songwriter, who had a banner year […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Trio of art shows on Black resilience, faith, cultural pride opens at Dalhousie Art Gallery
This February, African Heritage Month, let the Dalhousie Art Gallery be a beacon for community power, intergenerational knowledge sharing and creative resistance. Let it be a salve for the isolating chill of not winter but the racist, fascist and systematic efforts to scapegoat, divide and erase communities, cultures and histories. From Feb 4 through Apr […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Police board still dodging blame for 2021 shelter siege
Five months after a bombshell report laid the blame for Aug 18, 2021’s shambolic shelter siege at the feet of Halifax Regional Police and the HRM, the oversight board that’s supposed to police the former on behalf of the latter seems to want nothing to do with it. On Monday, Feb 3, Halifax’s Board of […]