SUDBURY -- This year’s Canada Day will be one like no other! Due to the COVID-19  pandemic, Sudbury is switching to a virtual event to celebrate our country, people, culture and values. Kids and adults alike will enjoy a day filled with festivities including multicultural entertainment, cool science, kids activities, arts and crafts, fireworks and a whole lot more!

The event is split into three parts and you can watch it all here starting at 2 p.m. July 1.  

Part 1 begins here at 2 p.m. and is two hours long.

2 - 2:30 p m. Opening remarks with dignitaries, O' Canada sung by Ashanti Hanna, Indigenous Opening Ceremony

2:30 - 4 p.m. Multicultural performances, local theatre, musicians, and artists perform, science shows, community organization tutorials and performances includes:

Y.E.S. Theatre

Since 2010, YES Theatre has become an integral part of the Northern Arts and Culture scene. They are the leading company for developing fostering the voice of young artists within our region. Past productions include Hair, Rent, Jesus Christ Superstar, In the Heights, Fiddler on the Roof, Hairspray, Billy Elliot, the YES Theatre Orchestra productions of Beauty and the Beast and The Sound of Music!

Baladi Nationla Dance Studio

The Baladi National Dance Studio is Sudbury's Original Belly Dance & Multicultural Dance Studio. Join them to see a unique multicultural performing arts experience.

India-Canada Association of Sudbury

The India-Canada Association of Sudbury is a community organization whose mission is to preserve and promote the rich and diverse cultural heritage of India; to foster collaboration among people of Indian origin and broader Canadian community; to advocate and ensure effective representation of members in social, political and cultural life for the benefit of our community at large.

Happiness Is Dancing

Happiness is Dancing is an award winning, state-of-the-art dance training facility located in Sudbury, who welcomes dancers of all ages and abilities, in classes of all disciplines, including Nursery, Predance, Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Musical Theatre, and Hip Hop.

Afro Madness Drum Troupe

Afro Madness Drum Troupe is a colorful percussion based community group from Sudbury. The group performs a mixture of Brazilian, African, Funk, Reggae, and Bhangra cultural styles of music using a wide variety of percussion based instruments. Audience interaction is integral with performances ending in a community celebration-drumming finale. 

Northern Latin Flavour

Northern Latin Flavour is a dance group that brings the Latin heat to Northern Ontario. The group was founded by Zoi Monroy, who is the only Salsa dancer who teaches Salsa and Bachata style dancing in the city. Zoi empowers people through dance and believes that no matter what age, gender or cultural background, dancing is a universal language people can share together.

Mino Biimaadiziwin Dance Troupe

Witness the beauty, grace, and timeless relevance of traditional and “fancy” native dance styles. The performance is not only entertaining, but educational. Each dance is complete with an oral presentation explaining its origin.

Irish Heritage Club of Sudbury

The Irish Heritage Club of Sudbury was formed in May of 1959 by four ambitious Irish immigrants. With the strong support of other Irish immigrants whom chose to make Sudbury their new home, the Irish Heritage Club grew to be a source of support for new-to-Sudbury Irish immigrants. The Irish Heritage Club developed a family type environment, with the primary goal of uniting Irish immigrants and descendants together to celebrate Irish culture. Over the years they have grown to be a Club that has members of every ethnicity, whom all share in the love of Irish culture.

Sudbury Chinese Community Dance Group

The Sudbury Chinese Community Dance Group is a non-profit, non-political organization. It’s an association of all Chinese people of different backgrounds, from different regions and of different occupations. Since its establishment eight decades ago, the organization has changed its name many times but the principles and values it is based upon have remained the same. The community recognizes that the world is a big family and that we are all one. Solidarity is the key of survival. Preserving and promoting the Chinese cultural heritage are the principle objectives the community sets out to achieve. As an original member of the Sudbury Multicultural & Folk Arts Association, the Chinese Community works to share our rich cultural heritage with all Canadians.

Indigenous Tourism Ontario

Chef Paul Owl is from the Serpent River First Nation in Northern Ontario. He is a thirty-something year old entrepreneur with 3 beautiful children and the love of his life, his wife Ashley. Mr. Owl has recently collaborated with his childhood friend to start the Canninish Group of Companies. Some of their newest start-ups include: Campn.Fish, a fully catered adventure on the land; and, Edible Hills Farm, a regenerative farm focused on educating, promoting and supporting local foods. Follow along in his segment where he will begin to show you how to make foraged traditional teas!

Part 2, put on by Northern Lights Festival Boreal, begins here at 6 p.m. and is also two hours long.  

6 - 7 p.m. Kicking off the evening entertainment will be a song circle workshop. Join local artists in singing a number of songs that will be sure to get you and the family singing along.

7:10 - 7:55 p.m. Evening concert with NLFB including:

Patricia Cano

Patricia Cano is an award-winning Peruvian-Canadian singer-songwriter and actor originally from Sudbury. In 2017, Patricia won the Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Cree, English and French in Tomson Highway's one-woman musical, The (Post) Mistress (Pleiades Theatre & Théâtre Français de Toronto co-production).

Jim Cuddy

Jim Cuddy has written many of the songs that have become indelible in the soundtrack of Canadian lives. With the release of his fifith solo album, Countrywide Soul, he continues to contribute to that extraordinary songbook and on this record, Jim continues to find new ways to balance personal reflection and plainspoken storytelling, remaining both intimate and accessible.

Both as a solo artist and as one of the creative forces in Blue Rodeo, Jim has received nearly every accolade Canada can bestow upon a musician including 15 JUNO Awards, The Order of Canada and, along with bandmates Blue Rodeo, has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, received the Governor General Performing Arts Award and a Star on the Walk of Fame. 

Part 3 is a pre-recorded Canada Day fireworks display put on by Dream Catcher Fireworks on the shores of Lake Wanapitei. The video will be available here starting at 8 p.m. July 1.

We want to see how you are celebrating Canada Day, so feel free to send your pictures and videos to us at newsforthenorth@bellmedia.ca

From everyone at CTV News Northern Ontario, happy Canada Day!