Celebrate Valentine’s weekend with old-time music, Zimbabwean tunes, a play or a cabaret
Old-time music and more
The 15th Oly Old-Time Fest, happening Feb. 14-16, is hosting celebrated musicians, dancers, callers and artists for a weekend of traditional tunes. The festival includes Appalachian and Cajun concerts, square dances and jams along with free workshops. Among the headliners are Balfa Toujours of Louisiana and the Earl White Stringband from Virginia. Balfa Toujours was started by Christine Balfa, daughter of legendary fiddler Dewey Balfa, who was instrumental in the revival of Cajun music and culture, said festival programmer Emily Teachout. And White, a renowned fiddler, “is one of few Black Americans carrying on the tradition of Appalachian stringband music,” Teachout said. The festival also will feature a crankie show, in which tunes accompany an illustrated scroll that is cranked through a viewing box, and a free cabaret. Evening activities happen at the South Bay Grange, 3918 Sleater Kinney Road NE, and workshops — which include fiddling, clogging and crankie-making — are at the grange and at Arbutus Folk School, 705 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. Tickets for the Friday and Saturday evening concerts and dances are $30 per day.
Theatrical Valentine
Harlequin Productions and the Northwest Playwrights Alliance are celebrating Valentine’s Day with “How Much the Heart Can Hold,” starring acting couples Jana and Brian Tyrell, Paige and Drew Doyle, and Austin and Jonah Barnett. The Friday, Feb. 14, performance, written and curated by playwright Bryan Willis and fellow scribe (and former student) Linda Kalkwarf, is labeled “A Valentine’s Oratorio,” a term usually reserved for choral works that suggests a narrative or long poem rather than a play. Kathryn Dorgan directs. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. at Harlequin’s State Theater, 202 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. Tickets are $20.
Also on offer for Valentine’s Day: Olympia Opera Theatre’s “A Very Valentine’s Cabaret”, at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, at New Traditions, 300 Fifth Ave. SW, Olympia. Tickets are $25; call 360-705-2819 to purchase.
Percussion for a cause
Local bands Mukana Marimba and Samba Olywa are playing Saturday, Feb. 15, to raise money for The Food Source Foundation, a nonprofit started by Chris Hyde, Olympia’s soup guy. Hyde, who’s been providing free soup to neighbors, friends and strangers, is expanding his mission to address food insecurity with the nonprofit. The marimba ensemble will share Zimbabwean melodies at the concert, which starts at 7 p.m. in The Eagles Ballroom, 805 Fourth Ave. E., Olympia. The drummers and dancers of Samba Olywa will open. Tickets are $15, with youth under 16 admitted free and sliding-scale tickets available at the door for those in need.
Freelance writer Molly Gilmore talks with DJ Kevin the Brit about what’s happening around town on KGY-FM’s “Oly in a Can,” airing at 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Fridays.