NewsletterMay 21, 2026

🎬 Screen NS Award Winners + this week's events

Plus a killer Bob Dylan Tribute show and a new single from Cape Breton's Lookout Tower

Hey Halifax!

This week we’ve got a killer Bob Dylan tribute show, the Wanderers are back home at The Wanderers Grounds (where the city just dropped a couple of very silly new made-up fees on soccer fans), and the Screen Nova Scotia Awards winners.

Plus a super fun new tune from Cape Breton’s Lookout Tower, Tracy & Martina hang out with Andy Hay, and a ton of events happening across the city.

Let's dig in 👇

Show of the Week · Saturday

The Fourth Annual Bob Dylan Revue

The Sanctuary Arts Centre · Sat May 23 · 7 PM · $31.47

Six guest vocalists tackle Dylan, backed by a five-piece house band. Fourth annual. Guests: Ryan Stanley, Leona Burkey, Danny Simmons, Tyler Messick, Matt Cheverie, and Leigh Wills.

Get Tickets

Screen Nova Scotia Awards

The 2026 Screen NS winners are in.

At The Place of Ghosts walked away with two of the night’s top prizes.

Bretten Hannam’s Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At The Place of Ghosts) won Best Feature Film, and lead Skyler Cope took the night’s Groundbreaking Performance award. The film is in theatres right now, but it looks like tonight may be your last shot to see it on the big screen in Halifax.

Also taking home awards

🏆 Heather Young — Best NS Director, A Soft Touch (WIFT Atlantic).

🏆 Apex: The Black Masters — Best Documentary (A+B Roll Films).

🏆 Wolverine and Little Thunder: An Eel Hunting Adventure — Best Animated (Venn Diagram Films).

🏆 Pretty Blind — Best TV Series, Scripted (Torrential Pictures / Club Red).

🏆 The Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival — Community Recognition (Tara Taylor & Shelley Fashan).

See the full 2026 winners list →

BMO Ride For Cancer

Help Evolve cross $1 million for BMO Ride For Cancer

Every dollar donated is matched by an anonymous donor up to $40,000.

Mathew Benvie of Evolve Fitness is raising $40,000 for the BMO Ride For Cancer as his 40th-birthday push — and an anonymous donor is matching every dollar, up to forty grand. With this year’s ride, Evolve will cross $1 million donated to Ride For Cancer over the years. Crazy!

Donate & Double It →

While you’re there — Evolve’s 6-week trial is $1. Widely regarded as Halifax’s best bootcamp / group class gym.

Quick Hits

🥍 The Thunderbirds fall in the final. Toronto Rock swept the final in two — 12-7 Sunday night at the Scotiabank Centre. Halifax was an unlikely 8 seed who gave us an incredible playoff run. Go Birds. CBC NS.

💸 HRM is taking a bigger cut at the Wanderers Grounds. A new $3 surcharge per ticket and 5% on every (already insanely expensive) alcoholic drink was just dropped out of nowhere, both for Wanderers and Tides games. We gave a hat tip to Mayor Fillmore’s reduction of restaurant patio fees last week, but this move is seriously boneheaded and extortionate. CTV Atlantic

⚽️ The Wanderers are home Saturday vs Inter Toronto FC, 4 PM. Tickets.

📻 Halifax's oldest radio station turned 100 this week. Broadcasting today as 89.9 The Wave, CHNS is celebrating 100 years on the air. CBC NS.

🎵 Gordie Sampson's mom just dropped her debut album. She's 78 and the other of one of Cape Breton’s most legendary songwriters. The album, obviously, is called Go With The Flo. CTV Atlantic.

June 12 + 13

Food For The Ears 2026

Two nights, outdoor, at Alderney Landing — a non-profit festival raising for Feed Nova Scotia.

Food For The Ears is a two-night outdoor music festival at Alderney Landing on June 12 + 13, with 100% of net proceeds going to Feed Nova Scotia. It was started in 2023 by Ethan Chitty as a Colchester food bank fundraiser at just 16 years old. Three years later, he’s grown it into a NS-registered nonprofit and a real festival pulling in the best acts from across the province.

And it’s needed. 29.3% of Nova Scotian households are food-insecure — one of the highest rates in Canada. That’s over 300,000 people, and 40% of NS kids. Feed Nova Scotia has been doing this work for 30 years across 140 partner agencies. FFTE puts every ticket dollar into that fight.

🎸 Friday June 12 — The Public Service + Colrain headline.

🎤 Saturday June 13 — Rankin MacInnis, The Broken Reeds, and Elyse Aeryn headline. Morgan Toney (fresh off his Juno win), Mat Hughes, and Good Dear Good also on the bill.

Grab Tickets →

Song of the Week

Lookout Tower

“The Champ”

Super fun new single from the Cape Breton band — out this week on Forks Records. The music video, shot and edited by Willie Stratton at the Membertou Boxing Club, is worth a watch on its own.

Listen on Spotify

▶ Watch the music video on YouTube

New East Coast Music

Townies

Cycles

Freakin

California Sober

Featured East Coast Pod

Shootin’ the Sh!t with Tracy & Martina

99. Grad Party Food with Andy Hay

Andy Hay, two-time MasterChef Canada finalist and host of Andy’s East Coast Kitchen Crawl, joins Tracy and Martina to help plan Brandi Lynn’s grad party!

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Now Playing

Last day for Place of Ghosts.

Little Lorraine, meanwhile, is still expanding nationwide.

Last day — Today

At The Place of Ghosts

Directed by Bretten Hannam

Today (Thursday May 21) may be your last chance to see it in Halifax. A supernatural thriller from Two-Spirit L’nu filmmaker Bretten Hannam (Bear River, NS) about two estranged Mi’kmaw siblings — played by Blake Alec Miranda and Forrest Goodluck — who reunite after a malevolent spirit visits and must journey into the Place of Ghosts to confront their past.

Showtimes →

Little Lorraine

Directed by Andy Hines

A crime drama born from Adam Baldwin’s 2022 song Lighthouse in Little Lorraine. Hines co-wrote the screenplay with Baldwin, expanding the song’s portrait of 1980s Cape Breton coal miners turned drug smugglers. Shot on location in Sydney and Louisbourg. Five weeks in, and Cineplex is adding shows across Canada.

Showtimes →