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.

This week, I’m happy to bring you an interview with Son de Metal’s Rodrigo Moreno Villamar about how he is using traditional Mexican folk music and fusing it with modern rock to create a genre of music that resonates with working-class people on Vancouver Island.

You can catch Son de Metal and traditional son Jarocho band Colectivo Yollotl from Vancouver in Mansfield Park this Wednesday night at 6 p.m. as part of the City of Nanaimo’s free Concerts in the Park series.

Hope you can make it,

Mick Sweetman

Son de Metal creates ‘a music of working people’

Traditional Mexican son-rock fusion band will play Mansfield Park in Nanaimo on Wednesday, July 9.

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Got the inside scoop of an event you think should be shared? 

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🔎 Watch for 🔎

Friday, July 11, 6:30 p.m.: Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance will be the first film screened as part of the new Unsettling the Lens Film Series in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada and the Nanaimo Art Gallery. The film will be shown on the 35th anniversary of the start of the Kanehsatake Resistance, also known as the Oka Crisis. Admission is free.

🎵 Listen 🎤

Wednesday, July 9, 3 p.m.: A pop-up concert by the Vancouver Island Symphony String Quartet will play Baroque to the Future in a private garden beside Joseph Creek in Departure Bay as part of the Symphony's Summer Sizzle Festival. Tickets cost $42. 

Wednesday, July 9, 6 p.m.: Traditional Mexican and rock fusion band Son de Metal and son Jarocho band Colectivo Yollotl will play at Mansfield Park as part of the City of Nanaimo’s free Concerts in the Park series. 

Thursday, July 10, 9 p.m.: Montreal’s El Balcón will lay down some world fusion at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $20. 

Friday, July 11, noon: James Vickers and Carson Maertz will perform at Wesley Square as part of the Old City Quarter’s Sounds of Summer concert series. 

Friday, July 11, 7 p.m.: The Social Stomach and Halfbird are in town from Portland and will play experimental noiserock and no wave at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $10. 

Friday, July 11, 7 p.m.: Funkyards, Yukaliptis, Katch 22 and Alick Mac will play a hip-hop show at the Globe Live Studio. Tickets cost $20 at the door or  $15 in advance.

Friday, July 11, 9 p.m.: The Lestranges and Moon Grove will play danceable psychedelic indie-rock at The Vault Cafe. Tickets cost $15.

Friday, July 11, 9 p.m.: The Mark Crissinger Band will play at The Nanaimo Bar. Tickets cost $10.  

Saturday, July 12, 8 p.m.: Heavy Trip, Burnt Lung and Death Hawk will play a show of heavy psych, rock, doom blues and stoner metal at The Terminal. Tickets cost $15. 

Sunday, July 13, 3 p.m.: The Gary Preston Band will headline the Sunday Blues Jam at The Queen’s. Tickets cost $10.

🎭 View 🖼️

Thursday, July 10, 7 p.m.: Kiss the Stormy Sky by Sid Eilers at The Port Theatre is part of the InFrinGinG Dance Festival. Tickets cost $41.50.

Friday, July 13, Noon: Take the final lunchtime tour of the exhibit After Wrappers by artist-run flavour incubator Big Rock Candy Mountain at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. Tickets cost $5 or are free for members

⛹️ Meet 🎲

Tuesday, July 8, 6:35 p.m.: The Nanaimo NightOwls play the Kelowna Falcons at Serauxmen Stadium. Tickets cost $10-$25.

Wednesday, July 9, 6:35 p.m.: The Nanaimo NightOwls play the Kelowna Falcons at Serauxmen Stadium. Tickets cost $10-$25.

Thursday, July 10, 1 p.m.: Learn about birds and turtles with Nanaimo Science at Buttertubs Marsh with a turtle expert from the Nanaimo Area Land Trust. Free event. 

Thursday, July 10, 6:35 p.m.: The Nanaimo NightOwls play the Kelowna Falcons at Serauxmen Stadium. Tickets cost $10-$25.

Friday, July 11, 6:35 p.m.: The Nanaimo NightOwls play the Wenatchee AppleSox at Serauxmen Stadium. Tickets cost $10-$25.

Saturday, July 12, 6:35 p.m.: The Nanaimo NightOwls play the Wenatchee AppleSox at Serauxmen Stadium. Tickets cost $10-$25.

Sunday, July 13, 1 p.m.: Interested in character design and methods for boosting your drawing skills to tell a story? Check out this week’s Art Lab Sunday which focuses on creating comics at the Nanaimo Art Gallery. Tickets cost $5 for non-members. 

Sunday, July 13, 1:05 p.m.: The Nanaimo NightOwls play the Wenatchee AppleSox at Serauxmen Stadium. Tickets cost $10-$25.

Tuesday, July 15, 6:35 p.m.: The Nanaimo NightOwls play the Nanaimo Selects at Serauxmen Stadium. Tickets cost $10-$25.

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