The forecast calls for showers of show tunes on Sunday.
There is the possibility of light rain this weekend, but the chance of Prince George Symphony Orchestra entertainment is 100 per cent. It's time for Pops in the Park.
The PGSO always launches their new performance season with a free outdoor concert at Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park. It typically attracts thousands of people to hear the region's premier music ensemble have some summer fun heading into the annual autumn startup.
"The City of Prince George is very generous in their grants to us, and one of the stipulations is that we do a free show for the community," said PGSO general manager Teresa Saunders.
"We love it. What a great fit for us, to be able to say thank you to the community by doing what we love and showing Prince George what we can do. It is a service we look forward to for a generous community we appreciate very much."
The music is always lighter, familiar fare. This year's Pops in the Park theme is a single word in lights: Broadway.
"All the music will have some connection to Broadway. It's just such a rich mine to draw from," said PGSO maestro Michael Hall.
"The music is so great, it's so familiar to everyone, it's composed to be engaging and interesting to a wide audience, and from a musical point of view it makes for a great atmosphere in an outdoor setting."
Some of the material on the Pops in the Park stage will be from Les Miserables, The King & I, even the infectious toe-tapper The Can-Can.
Two special vocal guests will join the PGSO for this homage to the Great White Way. Wil Fundal and Catherine Hansen McCarthy are both well known for their musical theatre credits. Each of them will do a trio of songs.
Fundal's selections include This Is The Moment from the play Jekyll & Hyde and The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha.
Hansen McCarthy will take on I Dreamed A Dream plus the Leonard Bernstein classic Somewhere from West Side Story, a play in which she once co-starred.
"I do love that song, it is so hauntingly beautiful," said Hall. "It's the 100th anniversary of Bernstein's birth, so we are tipping our hat to Bernstein."
This is a chance, said Hall, for the orchestra to have some fun and flash some different colours for the audience. It's also a chance to reconvene with each other after the summer break, get back on stage for some game-on adrenaline, and in some cases meet for the first time. An ensemble of that size inevitably has some new faces at the start of each new campaign.
"What we really want to do is pick up again where we left off," said Hall. "Sometimes you want a season to be done and phew, we got through it, but last year was such a good time, we were rolling along so well as an orchestra and an organization, and now we want to carry on that momentum. It was my first full year last year with the PGSO so I was getting to know the musicians, getting to know the audience, and I'm glad the summer break is over so we can do even more of that. Our artistic side is feeling very healthy, our financial side is feeling very healthy."
All that remains now is the weather, to define the 2018 Pops in the Park experience.
The show is free of charge, people are encouraged to bring blankets and lawn chairs and there will be door prizes for some lucky attendees. The event commences at 1 p.m.
Should there be rain, the concert will still go ahead but at St. Michael's Church at Fifth Avenue and Victoria Street.
