The Wilds, Up Your Watershed Fraser River Concert Tour 2015 with Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright will be performing at the Gibraltar Room in Williams Lake Thursday, May 7.
The B.C. artists are teaming up in performances with singers from Cataline, Nesika and Big Lake elementary schools in celebration of salmon, habitat restoration, and recycling.
“We are spending this week rehearsing with 200 students from Cataline and Nesika schools,” say Arntzen and Wright with their band. “We’re getting ready for what we humbly describe as ‘the greatest environmental show on Earth.’
“Our goal is to get people singing, wish they’d brought a handkerchief, and blow the roof off of the Gibraltar Room. We are singing for wild salmon, and actions for good watershed stewardship: habitat restoration and recycling.”
The Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society is sponsoring the Artist’s Response Team, which is working with four Cataline and four Nesika classes all week.
“The Wilds are great supporters of the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society and Scout Island Nature Centre, who do so much good work, year in and year out, to restore riparian habitats in the San Jose watershed,” Arntzen says. “The Williams Lake River valley is an ecological treasure; whenever we’re here in Williams Lake, we love to go walking there and enjoy the peace and glory of its biodiversity. These organizations will have information tables at the concert.”
Arntzen says the students are also spearheading e-waste and tire recycling roundups. They are doing inventories in their homes, identifying end-of-life electronics and bugging their parents to get the materials in to the Return-It Depot for proper recycling. Kids are looking around their yards and neighbourhoods for old tires, and getting adults to take them to Canadian Tire on Saturday, May 9, for recycling.
“These are local actions that help the watershed, by reducing waste and carbon footprint. And more importantly, it puts the kids in a leadership role to remind their community of the beautiful watershed and wild salmon that everyone has a responsibility to protect.”
The Wilds concert is Thursday, May 7. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 at the door for adults and free for children.