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Pedalling tunes on Bowker creek

Creekside Concerts start Friday by Hillside mall
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Kate Romain and Myriam Parent, at left, perform during the 2018 Victoria Bicycle Music Festival, organized by Tune Your Ride, who are holding three Creekside Concerts starting Aug. 9 at Clawthorpe Park. Second show is Aug. 29 at Browning and then Sept. 14 on the newly acquired Kings Park Hydro land between Kings and Haultain. (Photo Jason Dondale)

A trio of bike-powered music concerts are scheduled in parks that contain day-lighted sections of the otherwise buried treasure that is Bowker Creek.

The Creekside Concerts, as the series is named, is organized by James Davis who also runs the Victoria Bicycle Music Festival and came up with the idea for the concert series.

Each concert is a free, bicycle-powered event starting Aug. 9 at 6 p.m. in Clawthorpe Park along North Dairy Road, next to Hillside shopping centre.

READ MORE: Victoria bike music fest returns

“When I first moved to this area two years ago, I kept on coming across Bowker Creek as I explored Oak Bay and Saanich on my bike and I was intrigued by it,” Davis said.

“Having lived in Toronto for a number of years, where virtually all of the creeks are completely buried, I was thrilled to discover an urban creek that I could actually see and hear.”

The first show will feature local violinist Sari Alesh and former City of Victoria Poet Laureate Yvonne Blomer. Guests will be treated to free pedal-powered smoothies thanks to a generous donation from Thrifty Foods Hillside and the Tune Your Ride bike blender.

Come by bicycle or by foot, bring friends and a picnic and a reusable cup for a free bike powered smoothie and enjoy some poetry and music in beautiful parks, Davis said.

There will be an art activity for all ages, and a procession along the route of Bowker Creek, which runs underground beside the park.

Davis partnered with the Friends of Bowker Creek Society to celebrate Bowker Creek and its watershed and to increase public awareness of this oft-forgotten feature of the landscape, he said.

“We offer these events to celebrate living in an urban watershed. We want to know what people think about day-lighting the creek and creating a multi-use trail connected to the surrounding communities,” said Soren Henrich, chair of the society.

The second Creekside Concert is at 6 p.m. on Aug. 29 at Browning Park (on the west side Shelbourne Street between north of McRae Avenue and south of Knight Avenue). The artists are still to be determined.

The High Quadra Ramblers duo of Mack Shields and Kaitlin Chamberlin will play the third show at 1 p.m. on Sept. 14 at the newly purchased BC Hydro land between Kings Park and Haultain Avenue.

The series is supported by the Capital Region District’s IDEA Grant program and by the City of Victoria’s My Great Neighbourhood Grant program.

reporter@oakbaynews.com