Welcome to The Hub Nanaimo, your weekly insider guide to the best of community arts and culture. Did a friend forward this email to you? Subscribe to this newsletter.

We have a jam-packed newsletter today full of spooky season listings as well as our regular arts and culture events. 

As it is already quite long, I will keep my introduction short today and simply ask: Do you have any spooky spots I should know about?

Send your terrifying haunted Nanaimo suggestions alongside photos if you have them in reply to this email or at nanaimo@thediscourse.ca for inclusion in next week’s newsletter.

Thank you for reading,

Mick Sweetman

🖊️ What you said ⌨️

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“It’s great to know what’s going on in Nanaimo.”

—  RobynT., from our newsletter survey

🔎 Watch for 🔍

Sunday, Nov. 2, 2 p.m.:The Discourse Nanaimo invites fans of community-powered journalism to an afternoon with award-winning reporter Julie Chadwick as she makes a special appearance from Ottawa at White Sails Brewing!

Stop by between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. for a beverage and snack as we look back on the last five years of high-impact local stories, chat with community reporter Mick Sweetman about what he should dive into next and connect with other people in Nanaimo who are passionate about keeping our community informed and focused on solutions.

Know of an event you think should be shared? 

Send Mick an email.

🎃 Halloween 🧙

Oct. 1 to 31: Explore Halloween’s deep and tangled roots this October at Nanaimo Museum in the spooky mini-exhibit Return to the Pumpkin Patch. 

Friday, Oct. 24 to Sunday, Oct. 26, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: The third annual Scarecrow Spectacular will take place at Milner Gardens and Woodland in Qualicum Beach. Admission is $10 for adults and $6 for children 12 and under. Current Vancouver Island University (VIU) students and VIU Alumni can attend for free. 

Friday, Oct. 24, 9 p.m.: ASCENT // Goth & Industrial Night with DJs, costume prizes, dance floor mayhem at LevelTwo Nightclub. Cover $5. 

Saturday, Oct. 25, 5:30 p.m.: Danger Box's all ages Halloween Punk and Metal Fest is back for its fifth year, featuring the biggest lineup yet! Catch Under The Mountain, Potential Union, The Monarch and Red Lenses at The Globe Live Studio for the biggest and spookiest punk/metal show of the year. Tickets cost $20 in advance or $25 at the door. 

Saturday, Oct. 25, 7 p.m.: Halloween Costume Dance Party at Cavallotti Hall. Community dance with prizes for best costume. Tickets cost $30. 

Sunday, Oct. 26, 1 p.m.: Make a Monster at the Nanaimo Art Gallery’s Art Lab Sunday. Tickets cost $5 or are free for members.  

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2 p.m.: Make some cute, or scary, Halloween decorations at the Nanaimo North Library. The Halloween Craft Workshop is for adults, but children are welcome to join if accompanied by an adult.

Wednesday, Oct. 29, and Thursday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Explore the haunted basement of the OV Theatre during Halloween Spooktacular by the Reconciliation Theatre Society, then listen to a spine-tingling story from Never Whistle at Night: An Anthology of Indigenous Dark Fiction. Tickets cost $10 for adults, $5 for children and family passes are $20. 

Thursday, Oct. 30, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.: A Haunted Halloween Night at the Malaspina Theatre will feature a Pumpkin Pie eating contest, a costume contest, a mummy wrap challenge and pumpkin carving. A Haunted Trail at VIUs student housing follows the event.

🎵 Listen 🎤

Thursday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m.: Dawson Gray plays at The Globe Live Studio. Tickets cost $25. 

Thursday, Oct. 23, 9 p.m.: Pranatricks, Brookie Boi and NEAVV will play psychedelic indie rock and pop at The Vault Café. Tickets cost $15.

Friday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m.: The Nanaimo Fiddle Society will hold a Fall Barn Dance at Cedar Community Hall. Tickets cost $20 for adults and $10 for students from K-12. 

Friday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m.: Ancient City Teahouse Party returns to The Globe Live Studio for an epic alt rock/psych show with support from The Wet Souls, Triple Threat and The Next. Tickets cost $15. 

Friday, Oct. 24, 9 p.m.: Caedmon's Dream and Anunnaki will play doom metal and ethereal music from ancient times at The Vault Café. Tickets cost $15.

Friday, Oct. 24, 9:30 p.m.: Alberta country artist Brayden King will play at The Queen’s. Tickets cost $20 in advance or $25 at the door. 

Friday, Oct. 24, 9:30 p.m.: Moon Grove and Rare Earth Magnet will play dreamy psyc rock at The Nanaimo Bar. Tickets cost $10.

Saturday, Oct. 25, 2:30 p.m.: Folk trio Fraser Union will play at Pacific Gardens Cohousing Community. Admission by suggested donation of $10-$20. 

Saturday, Oct. 25, 7 p.m.: Great Lake Swimmers and Elliot Brood play at The Queen’s. Tickets cost $45 in advance or $50 at the door.  

Saturday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m.: Punkabilly band The Brains will play The Terminal with The Fomites and Stiltskins. Tickets cost $25.

Saturday, Oct. 25, 9 p.m.: Kaleidoscopic family fun punk band Little Angry and psychedelic nostalgia pop band Niloo will play The Vault Café. Tickets cost $15. 

Sunday, Oct. 26, 3 p.m.: The Gary Preston Band will headline the Sunday Blues Jam at The Queen’s. Tickets cost $10, or free for blues jammers and minors (with a guardian). Note: The Gary Preston Band was incorrectly listed as playing the blues jam last week, this is the correct date.

🎭 View 🖼️

Friday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m.: The opening for Canadian artist Samuel Roy-Bois' exhibition of artworks about the vibrant Commercial St. where the Nanaimo Art Gallery is located will take place at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. The exhibit will run from Oct. 25 to Jan. 4th, 2026. Admission is free. 

Saturday, Oct. 25, 2 p.m.: An art showcase featuring nine local artists will take place at My Inner Harbour. Admission is free.

Saturday, Oct. 25, 3 p.m.: A film screening of DÉTOURNEMENT and tour of the Commercial St. exhibit by Canadian artist Samuel Roy-Bois at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. Admission is free. 

Sunday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m.: Catch the Ocean Film Festival, an annual event that showcases a selection of the world's most stunning ocean-themed films, at The Port Theatre. Tickets cost $28. 

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 6 p.m.: The Palestine Laboratory will be screened at VIU Building 200, Room 203 by the VIU Muslim Women’s Club and For Palestine Vancouver Island. Admission is free.

⛹️ Meet 🎲

Thursday, Oct. 23, 7 p.m.: Marilyn Dumont will deliver the Ralph Gustafson Distinguished Poet’s Lecture at VIU, Building 355, Room 203, a “braided memoir of a Cree/English bilingual home with reflections on language, social currency, power, and resistance.” Admission is free.  

Saturday, Oct. 25, 1 p.m.: The VIU Mariners volleyball teams take on Camosun College in the VIU Gym. Women’s game at 1 p.m. Men’s game at 3 p.m. Admission is free for all VIU students. 

Saturday, Oct. 25, 2 p.m.: Local author and former CBC reporter Theresa O’Leary will present her book Race to the Cape: The Daring News Chase, the Birth of the Associated Press, and the Journalist at the Heart of it All at the Gabriola Island Library. 

Saturday, Oct. 25, 10 a.m.: The Mid-Island LEGO Users Group will host the Mid-Island Brick Fest exhibition at the Country Club Mall. 

Sunday, Oct. 26, 1 p.m.: Conservative MP for Nanaimo Ladysmith Tamara Kronis will be joined by Carson Binda from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Ryan Wong from the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights and Barry Holland, author of No More Mr. Nice Guy for a “public information session on the federal government’s Firearms Confiscation Program” at the Nanaimo Fish and Game Club. Admission is free. 

Sunday, Oct. 26, 1 p.m.: Monthly No Limit Hold’em Poker Tournament at Royal Canadian Legion Branch #10. Buy in is $50 (no rebuys). Must register by emailing pokerbranch10@gmail.com by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23.

Thursday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m.: Discuss how literature helps us know and reflect on our lives with writer Carol Matthews at the Philosophy Café in the Harbourfront Library. Admission is free. 

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