Finally! Another season of sunshine, camping, swimming, biking, and other forms of summer playtime has arrived! That’s worth a celebration! The Firehall Brewery’s “Back Alley Concert Series” will be toasting to life in paradise once again this summer. This coming Saturday (June 30th) we’ll be firing up the Series with a Canada-Day-Weekend performance by local Country-Rock band, Rob n’ Walker!
Rob n’ Walker is a three piece band featuring Rob Robertson on lead guitar and vocals, Fritz Cronjaeger, bass guitar and Cliffe Fraser on drums. The guys play a variety of high energy country, classic rock and originals all over the South Okanagan. Tickets are $15 if bought in advance, and $18 at the gate. Our event tickets tend to go fast these days, and you know Oliverites… last minute. So we encourage folks to come in as early as possible to purchase their tickets before the rush, downstairs at the Beer Shop & Social below the “Old Firehall” on Main Street. The concert itself takes place just off the Beer Shop & Social’s patio, under colourful shade sails and a summer twilight sky, sending good ol’ rock’n’roll vibrations echoing down “Brewery Alley”, along with a bit of dust kicked up by our dancing shoes.
Each of our Back Alley Concerts also features a local artist, local winery, local cidery, local distillery, and local foodtruck. That’s a lot of local. This Saturday, we’ll have our Beer Shop walls decorated with paintings by Roxanne D; we’ll have Oliver’s new La Casa Bianca Winery pouring their family’s fine wines; we’ll have fresh cider served by Maverick Estate Winery; we’ll have the one, the only, the magnificent Mr. Grant Stevely stirring up craft cocktails with his high spirits from The Dubh Glas Distillery; and we’ll have our great friends Graeme and Vivian of Vagabond Kitchen dishing up delicious eats from their slick silver Airstream Bus, which you may have seen serving lunch at their new weekday location on Station Street. And, if there’s even a point in mentioning this, we’ll have our beer too. Freshest brews in town, including a one-night-only cask of “Real Ale,” which is a traditional style of beer served from a “cask” that has to be literally tapped with a mallet, which gives us the opportunity to experiment with some creative one-off beer recipes.
A few details worth mentioning. The gates open at 6pm, and the music starts at 7pm. Music and dancing goes until about 9:30 or so, at which time everyone grabs their beer to-go for the night or heads over to Murphy’s Pub down the road for some late-night shenanigans. This is a Bring-Your-Own-Chair event; we do not have any concert seating. Baskets and bags will be politely searched at the entrance, just to keep out glass and bad beer. The dancing area is, uniquely, a bit off to the side, in clear view of the band but not directly in front of the crowd, so you don’t need to feel the pressure of everyone’s eyes on your swinging hips. That being said, no one’s judging, this is a grassroots, family-friendly, casual Alley Party, driven by and supported by community. Our sacred crew of Volunteers is what allows this community-oriented event to remain affordable. If you would like to volunteer, please email us at info@firehallbrewery.com. And please never forget: plan yourself a sober ride home. We love you all, and everyone needs to get home safe!
See ya Saturday! Cheers! www.firehallbrewery.com ~ facebook.com/