Music Mile brings back live performances with its July Friday night program
Calgary’s Music Mile will be living up to its name on Friday nights throughout July, with a program that will be presented to both in-person audiences and through live streaming.
Live From Music Mile: It’s Friday Night, which is funded by a grant by Calgary Arts Development, will offer a five-hour broadcast every Friday to coincide with live performances at venues throughout the mile-long stretch from Inglewood and East Village. The program kicked off Friday, featuring music live from the King Eddy, Without Papers, Ironwood Stage & Grill, Hose & Hound and the Blues Can.
All the venues except for Without Papers, which had musicians playing out of windows on the second-floor locations, had in-person audiences. The Ironwood, King Eddy and Blues Can will hold events every Friday in July while other venues will rotate for the other two spots in coming weeks. On Friday, performers included Tom Phillips and Amy Hef.
“It’s a blend of supporting venues to bring people in, (and) how to get music out to people if they are not comfortable coming in,” says Emma Stevens, co-ordinator of Live From Music Mile: It’s Friday Night. “We want to pay artists to get them back on stages. The easiest way to do that is to get venues to program artists they would normally book and know their crowd would love.”
That said, as of press time, lineups for July 10, 17, 24 and 31 have not been announced.
But in coming weeks, Live From Music Mile will live stream the five-hour program on musicmile. ca and Musicmileyyc on Facebook.
A 45-minute set will be streamed live from each participating venue.
For some, such as Blues Can, the Ironwood and King Eddy, the Friday night streams will overlap with an existing program of live music already being offered. Some of the in-person shows will charge a cover while others will offer free admission. All performances with in-person audiences will adhere to regulations about social distancing and capacity, Stevens said.
The live stream will be free, although a “virtual tip jar” will be available for donations.
Live music has been one of the trickier sectors to relaunch in Calgary. Restrictions have greatly reduced the type of performances allowed. Phase 2 of the relaunch allowed for the return of live performance, but without vocals and woodwinds for fear of airborne droplets spreading COVID -19. The Ironwood and Blues Can have designed sealed, Plexiglas-covered separate rooms to safely present vocalists.
“Artists have been streaming and finding interesting digital ways of performing and getting their music out there, but it’s just not the same,” says Stevens. “It’s not the same energy, it’s not the same experience. So we’re glad we can put this together for that height of summer music listening in Inglewood and East Village. The timing couldn’t be better. People are ready to get back to some live music.”