Brandon, MB – Another year of the City of Brandon’s popular “Music in the Park” summer program hits its opening note on the evening of Tuesday, June 5th in Princess Park in downtown Brandon. The eclectic FREE music programming is presented each year by the City of Brandon’s Community Development Section and features amazing musical talent of some of Western Manitoba's finest performing artists. New this year, the program will also feature weekly opening acts who have been selected to perform short sets ahead of the evening’s featured performers to draw in and warm up the crowd. Kicking off the 2018 edition of the Music in The Park program will be a performance from Mayer May Not Be, a talented group of current and former BU music students playing a mix of rock, pop, blues, and soul music. A full lineup of this year’s scheduled Music in the Parks performances running from June 5th through to the finale performance at Riverbank Discovery Centre’s new Festival Park on August 21st featuring Brandon-based pop/rock 4-piece, The 204, can be found at www.brandon.ca/music. All shows begin at 7 p.m. and the public is encouraged to bring a lawn chair or blanket for outdoor music-listening comfort. The City of Brandon’s Community Development staff extend their sincere thanks to all musical performers, sponsors, and audience members for their commitment to community building through live music.

Habanero Sombrero, an award winning food truck from Winnipeg,will be making their first appearance at Food Truck Warz in Brandon this September.  They serve delicious homemade Mexican food inspired from trips across Mexico, Arizona and California. Tacos are served on a 6 inch soft corn tortilla topped with coleslaw, pico de gallo and quesco fresco cheese.   The meats (chicken, beef, pulled pork) are all slow roasted with their own special house rub.  Habanero Sombrero also offer a complimentary salsa and sauce bar including a jalapeno hot sauce or pineapple tomatillo salsa. In 2016 Habanero Sombrero won best food truck in Metro Winnipeg Community Choice award voting.  They were also voted the 2nd best food truck in the Best of Winnipeg Readers Choice Awards in 2015, as hosted by the Winnipeg Free Press.

Brandon's first ever Food Truck Warz has been nominated in the category of "Event of the Year" at this year's Tourism Westman Awards Gala to be held next month in Gladstone.   Food Truck Warz took place in Brandon, MB in September of 2017.  The event played host to 17 gourmet food trucks from all over the province and attracted over 20,000 people to the 2-day event. "It's quite the honour" said event co-organizer Darrly Wolski when he heard the event had been nominated.  "I am very proud of the effort we put forth in hosting the event and we are looking forward to making this year's event even bigger and better" added Darryl. The evening recognizes and celebrates the exceptional individuals, businesses, organizations and communities within the Westman region that have made significant contributions to tourism development and promotion over the past year.  Other nominess for Event of Year include: Brandon Cruise Nights, Camp Hughes Heritage Day, Grimm Acres Scare Away Cancer, Neepawa Street Party, Westman Multicultural Festival and the Royal Canadian Legion National Youth Track & Field Championships. In addition to Event of the Year, awards will also be handed out in five other categories including Aspiring Youth, Marketing Excellence, Partnership, Service Excellence, and Volunteer of the Year.  Award winners will be announced at the Tribute to Tourism Gala being held at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 13th, 2018 at the Gladstone Community Centre.  Winners will be nominated for the chance to advance to the Manitoba Tourism Awards for a chance to be recognized at a Provincial level.

Here ye, here ye, Vincent Massey High school is honoured to present this year’s musical King Artie and the Knights of the Rad Table. An all ages musical based on the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table set in our modern day’s age. Book and lyrics by Pat Lydersen and music by Wendy Woolf. This musical follows the one-hour journey of a rad lad name Artie who was sent back in time to Camelot and became the high king of England with the help of the knights of the rad table, the great wizard Merlin, and his friend Gwen. Vincent Massey musical theatre class has been actively working on King Artie and the Knights of the Rad Table since April 2018 to bring laughter, joy, and comedic adventure to the Brandon community. The show will be held on June 6th and 7th at 7:00 pm in the D.C. Wilson Lecture Theatre at Vincent Massey High School. The students of Vincent Massey’s musical theatre class have auditioned and the following have been selected for the amazing parts of Gwen the dreamer: Tina Censi Lu, Cool King Artie: Felix Gallardo Roque, the hilarious wizard Merlin: Azka Ahmed and many more. Some of these students made appearances in our past productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and We Will Rock You. Go on an adventure with us, for a comedic musical night. You can get your tickets at the Vincent Massey main office, through a musical theatre student, or at the door, all for $10.00 per person. Vincent Massey’s High School musical theatre class invites all the king’s horses and all the king’s men and women to the wonderful musical adventure of King Artie and the Knights of the Rad Table at 7:00 pm on Wednesday and Thursday June 6th and 7th.

Scottish hard rock band Nazareth will be performing a concert in Brandon at The 40 sometime in August.  The band formed in 1968 and had several hits in the United Kingdom and other European countries prior to releasing their album “Hair of the Dog” in 1975.  That album featured the hit songs Hair of the Dog and a cover of the ballad Love Hurts.  The album helped establish Nazareth as an internationally popular rock band and sold over one million copies in the United States. Liz, the Manager at The 40 and the Trails West Motor Inn, tells bdnmb.ca that all the details (poster, tickets, etc) will be slowly announced within the week.  You can follow The 40’s Facebook page for more information as it becomes available.