East Coast Ukrainian Festival

The East Coast Ukrainian Festival takes over the Steele Wheels Motor Museum on Sunday, September 27, from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM. It's a family afternoon of Ukrainian culture, community, music, dance and food, run by the East Coast Ukrainian Association with support from the Ukrainian community across Atlantic Canada. The venue is a modern space filled with vintage cars, and the day works around live performances, traditional food, crafts and hands-on activities for the whole family. Proceeds go to the Association.

Headlining are The Kubasonics, an award-winning Ukrainian-Canadian 'speed-folk' ensemble from Newfoundland and Labrador. They were founded in 1996 by multi-instrumentalist and ethnomusicologist Brian Cherwick, who remains artistic director and lead musician. The band fuses traditional Ukrainian music with contemporary influences, drawing on more than 40 instruments and splashes of traditional Newfoundland tunes. They've toured 11 Canadian provinces and territories, Eastern Europe, South America and the Caribbean, and their seven albums have earned 12 Juno, East Coast Music Association and MusicNL nominations and four wins. Cherwick himself was awarded the Taras Shevchenko Medal, the highest honour of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. They'll be joined on the bill by local talent.

Doors open at 11:30 AM, and the festival runs until 5:00 PM. Admission is C$5 for adults, C$15 for a family of four, and children 12 and under are free. You can find the museum at 66 Otter Lake Ct, Bayers Lake, Halifax, NS B3S 1L9.