Fallsview is silent, but shows go on at Seneca Casino

Concerts continue at Niagara Falls, N.Y., venue

All month, it has been a tale of two local casinos.

One is open 24/7 and hosting concerts. One is shuttered with its concert stage silent.

On Friday night, Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, N.Y., will have Marie Osmond play its Event Center. She’ll be followed next Friday by former “Saturday Night Live” star Jim Breuer on Jan. 28.

There are no capacity limits at the shows, but audience members must wear masks “regardless of vaccination status,” according to the casino’s website.

Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, meanwhile, is still waiting for word from the province when it’s feasible to reopen. Both Fallsview and Casino Niagara have been closed since Jan. 5 after the province introduced strict protocols in response to surging COVID-19 numbers.

Unlike Fallsview, the Caesars Windsor casino webpage said the venue will be closed “through” Jan. 26 but doesn’t specify if it will reopen on that date.

For now, Fallsview’s dearth of live music continues. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, the 1,500-seat Avalon Ballroom has only hosted two shows — the recent “Christmas Wonderland” in December and a week of filming for “Canada’s Got Talent” in November. Several concerts booked for the spring and summer of 2020 were cancelled or rescheduled.

Though Fallsview reopened in July with capacity restrictions, there were still no concerts happening at either the Avalon or the new 5,000seat entertainment centre, which was scheduled to open in the spring of 2020.

But that could change next month. To date, Fallsview has not cancelled a handful of shows booked for February, including Richard Marx Feb. 16, The Choir of Man Feb. 9 to 13, Sara Evans Feb. 19 and The 5th Dimension Feb. 22 to 24. Upcoming shows include Larry the Cable Guy May 5, ZZ Top May 6 and Brad Paisley May 28.

Seneca Casino, meanwhile, has announced a new slate of shows for April including Pablo Cruise April 2, Robert Kelly & Friends April 15 and 16, and two rescheduled shows — Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals April 8 and The Temptations & Four Tops April 22.

Tickets for all April shows at Seneca go on sale Jan. 21 at noon at www.ticketmaster.com.