When the Canada Winter Games festivities cross the finish line each day, the starting gun will just be firing for activities at Cariboo House.
The midwinter sports and culture extravaganza has its own slate of athletic spectacles during the day and concerts in the evening, but Citizen Special Events and Pacific Western Brewing will open the doors to Prince George nightlife at a little partyshack in the woods they call Cariboo House.
Well, not exactly the woods - smack in the middle of downtown Prince George, to be specific: Fifth and Dominion.
"We will be taking over Heartbreakers [also known in recent years as The Overdrive, Rum Jungle, The Munk and other names] and stocking it with 18 consecutive days of prime entertainment," said Norm Coyne of Citizen Special Events. "We have a mix that will appeal to everybody: deejays, country, rock, celebrity guests, even a band of celebrity session musicians who will play songs while you sing live karaoke. They are called The Naturals and they call it rockaoke."
The best known name to take centre stage at Cariboo House is Cabral "Cabbie" Richards, the affable and comedic sportscaster who started his career in the eponymous Cabbie On The Street segment on The Score. Since then he has become famous for his high-energy and high-funny interview style enjoyed by the A-list subjects as much as the audience. He has been a regular contributor on the Marilyn Denis Show on daytime CTV and has a high profile on TSN's nighttime Sportscentre.
Cabbie will host a live sports trivia event at Cariboo House on Feb. 24.
Some other names up in the bright lights include country star Julian Austin (grand opening night, Feb. 13), a deejay double bill with Mat The Alien and Neon Steve (Feb. 14), a Metallica tribute band named Disposable Heroes (Feb. 22) and east coast Celtic stars The Irish Descendants (Feb. 16), to name but a few.
"We will have these national-calibre athletes doing their thing in our town, we will have a great music festival at the Civic Centre every night, the whole nation is coming to town, so we wanted to do our part to make this a memorable experience," said Coyne. "We had the opportunity to partner with PWB and turn Heartbreakers into the place to go for downtown nightlife, right in the heart of Games Village."
Coyne said the Citizen is about to celebrate its 100th anniversary, and PWB is also a company with a long and colourful legacy rooted in Prince George, the northernmost and largest community in the Cariboo region. With that long history, and the line of Cariboo beer made by PWB, came an obligation to send Canada Winter Games visitors home with great personal stories about Prince George. With the CWG organizers taking care of the sports and early evening entertainment, this partnership would take care of some of the late-night hours.
Each night at Cariboo House is a unique, individual entertainment experience with its own ticket (the most expensive is $20).
Advance passes, including group packages, will be available through the www.eventbrite.com website (find Prince George on their map for all P.G. eventbrite listings) and stay tuned to The Citizen for additional ticket locations.
For more information call 250-562-2441 and ask for Cariboo House organizers.
