October 16, 2020

Bonus Episode - Broadway Theatre Fundraising Campaign

12 minutes

The Broadway Theatre holds a lot of meaning for people in Saskatoon.

Some people go to the Broadway for live theatre, others come for movies, and if you're like me, you buy a seat to one of the many of the great concerts hosted by the venue. It really is a hub for Saskatoon's artistic and creative community and like many other venues in our city, it has been hurt by the pandemic.

Kirby Wirchenko is the Executive and Artistic Director of the Broadway Theatre. Our relationship goes back to when I was a journalist at CBC and he was kind enough to let me know of a fundraising campaign that was going to be launched today to help the Broadway pay some bills. I thought a conversation with Kirby about how the Broadway has been impacted by Covid-19 and why now was the right time to ask the community for help would make a nice bonus episode of the podcast.

I miss live music. I miss it so damn much. What worries me is by the time life returns to some sense of normalcy and artists are ready to tour again, there won't be venues for them to play. The Broadway Theatre is one of my favourite places to see a show in Saskatoon and I am confident our community will rally to help Kirby and his team reach their goal.

I hope you enjoy this bonus episode, and if you want to learn more about some of Saskatoon's smaller live music venues, give this YXE Underground episode a listen! It takes you to several smaller venues that were set to be hosts for last April's Junofest music series. The festival didn't happen due to the pandemic, but you'll get a sense of how vibrant Saskatoon's music scene is and why it's important to so many people.

Thanks to Kirby for reaching out to me and thank you for listening! Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or your favourite podcast app. Stream episodes on Spotify or the website. A brand new episode of YXE Underground drops November 12th.

Stay safe and healthy, Saskatoon!

Cheers...Eric