Due to Covid concerns, the Southwest Showcase in Deloraine has postponed their winter concert series until later this year.

Committee Chair, Doug Whiteside, says they’re hopeful to resume the series later this fall.

“Our artists are reluctant to come with the present health situation,” explains Whiteside.  “We had our first concert cancelled with Don Amero at his request.  He just wanted to postpone it until things settle down with Covid, and then Royal MTC (Manitoba Theatre Centre) just pulled the pin on their regional tour. So that was 2 out of our 3 concerts were gone right off the bat!”

“The one that we had scheduled in March was a little bit iffy too, whether that was possible to be able to go ahead.  So, we just thought it was better for all concerned if we postponed things and tried to get things off the ground in the Fall again.”

This isn’t the first time Covid shut down the Southwest Showcase’s concert season.  For the 2020-21 season they had a full line-up of 6 concerts scheduled, but all had to be cancelled due to restrictions.

“We laid low for awhile and didn’t plan anything and then things were looking up a bit last spring and summer and so we thought we would get a bit of a series going, and so we booked these 3 shows for a mini-series now in January, February and March of this year.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen either,” he shares.

Whiteside says this has been extremely frustrating, especially when close to $700 has been put into promoting this winter concert series.  They’ve hosted ticket sale campaigns and are now sorting out that logistic as well.

“We are in the process now of offering people the option of either holding their tickets from this season for a credit towards possibly some shows next Fall, or offering a refund, whatever their choice might be,” he adds.

The Southwest Showcase would be in their 35th season, if it weren’t for the pandemic.  So, continuing to bring musical artists to the area is important to the group, and if all goes according to plan, they will be hosting a Fall concert series, even if it’s only a few shows.

“Actually, a couple of the artists that we’ve had to cancel have already indicated that they are certainly willing to come.  So, we’ve got a couple of them already tentatively lined up for the Fall, just nothing with a definite date yet.”