logo
Frozen fun kicks off downtown at Erie Winter Carnival

Frozen fun kicks off downtown at Erie Winter Carnival

Yahoo21-02-2025
Cold winds and steady snow set the stage Thursday night to kick off this year's winter carnival in downtown Erie.
The Erie Downtown Partnership is hosting its fifth annual Winter Carnival this weekend, bringing live music and winter fun to State Street.
Many Erie residents are probably fed up with the cold temperatures and heavy snow by now but this weekend the Erie Downtown Partnership is giving people a chance to embrace the winter.
The Erie Winter Carnival kicked off at the flagship city food hall Thursday night with a live performance from Lifethrumusic, a gospel band that doubles as a music mentoring program.
'Oh man, there's no better way to spend the night. There's no better way to spend the night. We communicate, we enjoy each other, and it's creativity like exploding. Sometimes, we don't even plan a song, we sit and we just fill it out and just have a blast,' said Patrick Lyons, the bassist for Lifethrumusic.
And over at the Perry Square stage, the festivities continued with the Flagship City Sports and Sips Curling League.
One player said he has no problem curling out in the cold and even met his fiance through the sport.
'I think it's just a cool thing to bring to Erie. I've always seen it on TV and it looked cool, so it's awesome to be able to try out a version of it,' said Steve Gibbens, a curler.
We got music. We got curling. We got a ton of stuff happening here, but there's something missing here at the Erie Winter Carnival, and the events manager said that it's actually going to add to the overall experience.
'Unfortunately, our ice sculptures are going to have to be moved to next weekend for circumstances kind of out of our control, but we're used to pivoting, we do it with weather and during COVID all the time, so we're having two weekends of winter fun here at the end of February and we're going to keep the party going next weekend,' said Dave Tamulonis, Erie Downtown Partnership events manager.
Over 60 ice sculptures will decorate Perry Square next weekend.
But in the meantime, the show goes on at the winter carnival with fire dancing Friday night, a soup-tasting stroll Saturday afternoon and plenty of live music at local businesses all weekend long.
If you would like to see the full winter carnival schedule this weekend,
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Amid squeeze on musical ecosystem, an old Cambridge venue gets new life
Amid squeeze on musical ecosystem, an old Cambridge venue gets new life

Boston Globe

timea day ago

  • Boston Globe

Amid squeeze on musical ecosystem, an old Cambridge venue gets new life

It reopened earlier this year, after a year-and-a-half closure, according to the venue's owners. In doing so, it became something of an anomaly in Greater Boston. Band member Clifford Carraha tested a microphone on the small stage. Ben Pennington/for The Boston Globe As beloved, housing and cost of living crises. Gregg Perry, the trio's 42-year-old guitarist from Arlington, plays in a couple bands, but the gigs don't come as often as they once did. A Berklee College of Music dropout, Perry works as a delivery driver part time nowadays, he said. Advertisement 'I don't know, man, the Boston music scene is really tough,' he said. 'Just trying to get a gig, dude is like, [expletive]. . .' His voice trailed off. Advertisement JP Faundez Power Trio bandmates Gregg Perry, J.P. Faundez, and Clifford Carraha (left to right) played together in Toad. Ben Pennington/for The Boston Globe Tommy McCarthy, and his wife, Louise Costello, are behind Toad's rebirth. It is the fifth bar they've opened. The first, and perhaps most well known, is Both musicians by trade, McCarthy and Costello didn't know much about running a bar at the time. 'We just thought if you could create the music, the rest will follow,' said McCarthy recently. That mantra has guided the reopening of Toad. It's connected by a doorway to a larger pub, formerly known as Christopher's, now called McCarthy's. While Toad puts on live music — blues, acoustic singer-songwriters, rock — later at night, McCarthy's has a traditional Irish session every day of the week that starts at 7 p.m. The Burren has a similar setup of different performance spaces. Jonathan Bricker, a professor who teaches courses on live music, touring, and concerts at Berklee, said the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out many small, independently run venues that are a creative lifeblood for the local musical community. 'Rooms like that are essential for developing, for trying out, and growing as an artist, as a band, wherever you find yourself on the musical spectrum,' said Bricker, who manages several local acts. Data on small, independent music venues, and their closures since the start of the pandemic, are hard to come by. The Advertisement Toad's reopening is welcome news among local musicians. Trama acknowledged that at a time when it is becoming 'tougher and tougher' for artists to exist in Greater Boston, any survival of another place to gig should be applauded. 'All of these smaller places, they are a lifeline to the culture of art in the whole Boston area,' he said recently. 'More of them, the better.' People mingled before the music started at Toad. Ben Pennington/for The Boston Globe 'It's a victory, definitely,' she said of Toad's reopening this past April. 'Having it back is a major win. Places like Toad, you have every skill level of musician playing that room.' Jim Haggerty, a full-time musician who has played bass for about 50 years, lamented the dwindling number of small venues. He described Toad, a place he has played more than a hundred times, as somewhere 'where professional musicians can play, and, if you have a good enough following, you can make a living.' Haggerty moved to Boston from upstate New York in the 1980s, when it was possible to work odd jobs, pay cheap rent with 'a bunch of buddies,' and pursue one's artistic dreams. It's no longer that town, he said. Haggerty lives in Roslindale and was able to buy a house 'before things got crazy.' Implied is that musicians nowadays have a much steeper fiscal climb to put down roots locally. Advertisement 'I got extremely lucky,' he said. Back in Toad before his gig, Carraha, the bassist and singer, said for him, the barometers of a good set are straightforward: Are the players in sync, feeling the groove? Is the crowd responding positively? Carraha, a 42-year-old Watertown resident, has been playing gigs around town for about 25 years. In his day job, he co-owns a catering company. 'Every venue is essential because as artists we need that,' he said. His bandmate, Perry, will be happy with his take from the night's performance. Perry will make $120, he said. In years past, he played gigs at Toad where the entire band got $150, plus whatever was in the tip bucket, and some comped food and drinks. 'It's medicine for the soul,' he said of music. 'I need this.' Minutes later, his band started to play. Danny McDonald can be reached at

S.F.'s pandemic-era cultural hub to close after five years
S.F.'s pandemic-era cultural hub to close after five years

San Francisco Chronicle​

time2 days ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

S.F.'s pandemic-era cultural hub to close after five years

A cherished cultural hub for San Francisco's Filipino community is closing down after serving as an inclusive community space for five years. Located in a transformed parking lot at 967 Mission St., in the heart of the city's Filipino Cultural Heritage District, Kapwa Gardens opened during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 with the help of nonprofit economic development and arts organization Kultivate Labs and more than 300 volunteers. The garden has since operated as a space for public gatherings and artistic expression, hosting an array of events including yoga, live performances and private gatherings. Now, the area is being vacated to make way for a senior housing development, a project that organizers had known about from the beginning. 'Kapwa Gardens revived the spirit of bayanihan — our tradition of collective care and barn-raising — at a time when everything felt fractured,' Desi Danganan, executive director of Kultivate Labs, told the Chronicle. 'In the middle of a pandemic and a downtown in decline, it became a sanctuary.' The SOMA space has hosted more than 200 public events and, in 2023 alone, generated more than $115,000 in vendor sales. It plans to host a free farewell event on July 26 for its beloved Yum Yams gathering, which celebrates ube, a purple yam primarily grown in the Philippines. The event is expected to feature an array of ube snacks, DJ sets, local vendors and more and will be free to attend. Guests can RSVP online. The city of San Francisco has already awarded pre-development funding for the future site at 4th and Folsom Streets, according to a statement. Danganan added that the goal is to include power, running water and other facilities in the new space. 'This next version isn't just a garden,' he said. 'It's a chance to build a cultural gateway for the Filipino Cultural District.'

NYC's Carnegie Hall welcomes youngest piano prodigy ever to take stage
NYC's Carnegie Hall welcomes youngest piano prodigy ever to take stage

New York Post

time2 days ago

  • New York Post

NYC's Carnegie Hall welcomes youngest piano prodigy ever to take stage

Alec Van Khajadourian plays to his strengths. And the five-year-old, a piano prodigy from Los Angeles, is poised to show off his strong suit — on one of NYC's most storied stages this Sunday. 'I can't wait to get on stage at Carnegie Hall and play for everyone,' little Alec enthused to The Post. 'I'm so excited!.' 5 Alec will shine as the youngest performer for the NY Classical Debut Awards Gala Concert at Carnegie Hall Sunday. @alecvanmusic/Instagram The ivory-tickling tot will be the youngest virtuoso performing at the NY Classical Debut Awards Gala Concert this weekend, when elementary and middle school age children from 10 countries — including Turkey, Macedonia, Macau and Poland — will show off their skills at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall. 'Alec is our youngest performer ever,' said Pietro Molteni, the founder and artistic director for the Gala Concert. 'And, according to my records, the youngest performer in the history of Carnegie Hall.' Representatives for Carnegie Hall, however, told The Post they could not 'confirm anyone to be the youngest person to perform here since we don't have complete records of the Hall's earliest days.' In the summer of 2021, at age 3, pint-size pianist Brigitte Xie, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, was invited to perform at the world-famous venue after after winning a prestigious international music competition — but the top-of-her-game Tri-Stater reportedly wasn't able to make it due to a COVID-19-era snag. 5 Following his impressive winning streak, Alec was invited to perform at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in July. @alecvanmusic/Instagram Alec's triumphant journey to Carnegie started on a similar note — besting his pint-sized peers at not one, but three major events. Armed with perfect pitch — the ability to correctly identify or produce a musical note, a rarity found in only one in 10,000, or .01% of people, per reports — the bitty Beethoven buff began running his fingers across the piano keys shortly after taking his first steps. 'He would walk over to the piano when he first started walking, punching a few notes,' dad Joe Khajadourian, previously told ABC7. 'You could just see the huge grin on his face.' At age four, the talented tyke began fine-tuning his innate knack with piano lessons last year. 5 The tiny hotshot, a fan of Beethoven, began playing the piano while he was still in diapers, say his parents. . @alecvanmusic/Instagram In March 2025, he won first prize at the Charleston International Music Competition in South Carolina. He then dominated in the Big Apple, securing top honors at the 2025 NY Classical Debut Awards International Competition in April. And while most kids were busy dreaming about summer vacation, Alec was taking the gold at the 2025 Los Angeles Golden Classical Music Awards International Competition. The win earned him an exclusive invitation to perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall in the City of Angels on July 1. The mini maestro will continue his success streak at Gotham's acclaimed concert venue, where artists, from composers such as Antonín Dvořák and Gustav Mahler, to modern-day hitmakers like Jay Z, have, too, made their mark. 'I'm so excited and proud of Alec for all his hard work,' Joe tells The Post. 'It's such an amazing time for him.' 5 The five-year-old giddly tells The Post he's 'excited' to take one of NYC's most hallowed stages. @alecvanmusic/Instagram Both he and Alec's mother, Diana Sanders, have been granted permission to accompany the little luminary behind the curtains ahead of his W. 57th St. showcase, says Molteni. '[The NY Classical Debut Awards] and the Carnegie Hall staff made a few exceptions to the venue's strict rules — for instance, the policy prohibiting parents backstage,' Molteni explained, citing Alec's young age. 'The incredible Carnegie Hall team, including our amazing concert manager, Lorella Bergamo, immediately understood the uniqueness of the situation and accommodated it with great professionalism,' he added before emphasizing the importance of spotlighting gifted go-getters like Alec. 5 The boy's mother and father, Diana Sanders and Joe Khajadourian, expressed their abiding pride in Alec to The Post. @alecvanmusic/Instagram 'Taking the stage at such a prestigious venue allows these young musicians to see themselves as capable of achieving the highest levels of their craft,' he said. 'It's an extraordinary motivational boost for a young artist, who devotes countless hours to studying music in their room and pursuing one of the most demanding careers in the world.' Mom Diana agrees. 'It's beautiful to watch Alec share his love for the piano with so many people,' she gushed, 'and to inspire young kids to pursue music.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store