{"id":17881,"date":"2017-07-19T16:13:46","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T20:13:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17881"},"modified":"2017-07-19T16:13:46","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T20:13:46","slug":"harlequin-and-david-wilcox-to-headline-ribfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/harlequin-and-david-wilcox-to-headline-ribfest\/","title":{"rendered":"Harlequin and David Wilcox to headline Ribfest"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Canadian rockers Harlequin and David Wilcox will headline Aurora\u2019s 2017 Ribfest.
\nThe fan favourites were announced by Mayor Geoff Dawe and Wendy Browne of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce at last Wednesday\u2019s Concerts in the Park series.
\nTraditionally, the Mayor builds anticipation for the big reveal by throwing out a few teasers to the hundreds of concert-goers \u2013 and while Harlequin themselves let the cat out of the bag when it came to their Friday, August 25, gig, the return visit of David Wilcox the following evening \u2013 his second trip to Ribfest in as many years \u2013 came as more of a surprise.
\n\u201cWith David Wilcox hitting such a grand slam home run last year \u2013 and I could not keep up with the call volume asking him to come back \u2013 it seemed really logical to bring back by popular demand,\u201d says Shelley Ware, Special Event Coordinator for the Town of Aurora, of the musicians famed for his songs Bad Apple, Do The Bearcat, Cat Man, and Suzie Q.
\nAs for Harlequin, the Winnipeg-bred band have long been on Ms. Ware\u2019s radar, and everything aligned perfectly this year.
\n\u201cI am really excited they have the chance to perform,\u201d says Ms. Ware of Harlequin, who hit the charts with Innocence, I Did It For Love, Superstitious Feeling, and Little White Lies. \u201cThey are a very active band, very busy, so we\u2019re fortunate to actually get them in Ontario. I think there are a lot of gems in their albums that some people might not identify as Harlequin, and that is where the dialogue of music comes into play. There are going to be songs where you will say, \u2018Oh, that was Harlequin?\u2019 and I am excited to surprise a few attendees.\u201d
\nHarlequin is a Canadian rock band originally formed in Winnipeg during the mid-seventies. The band began their recording careers in New York with Jack Douglas, legendary producer of John Lennon, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick. They are still heard frequently on the radio.
\n\u201cTheir stellar performances and music are legendary,\u201d says Ms. Ware, who dubs Wilcox as \u201cone of the most talented guitar players in the world. He has been described as the \u2018songwriter\u2019s songwriter.\u2019 His talent as a performer and storyteller is incredible.\u201d
\nHarlequin takes the stage on August 25 at 9 p.m., while Wilcox takes over August 26 at the same time.
\nThe party, however, gets started a bit earlier this year when original band The Kings performs at Town Park on Wednesday, August 23 at Town Park as part of the Concerts in the Park series.
\n\u201cIt is kind of a wave of classic rock taking us through the weekend,\u201d says Ms. Ware.
\nThe entertainment lineup also got the Mayor\u2019s seal of approval.
\n\u201cI am a big fan of any Winnipeg-based rock and roll band \u2013 some of the best talent in Canada comes out of Winnipeg going back to Terry Jacks and the Guess Who,\u201d he said. \u201cI am really pleased to see David Wilcox coming back; he was fabulous and just really put on a great show. There was a lot of energy there for a three-man band. It will be a great night for live music \u2013 and it doesn\u2019t get much better than live music!\u201d
\nThe headliners aren\u2019t the only chance to experience live music at Ribfest, however, as Magna will present the semi-finals of the 2017 Hoedown Showdown talent competition, a more recent \u2013 and popular \u2013 addition to the Ribfest lineup.
\nRibfest gets underway at Machell Park (Aurora Heights Drive just west of Yonge Street) Friday, August 25 at 11 a.m. running through 10 p.m. on Sunday, August 27.
\nAdmission is free. Age of majority after 8 p.m.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian rockers Harlequin and David Wilcox will headline Aurora\u2019s 2017 Ribfest.
\nThe fan favourites were announced by Mayor Geoff Dawe and Wendy Browne of the Aurora Chamber of Commerce at last Wednesday\u2019s Concerts in the Park series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4Ep","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-14 12:45:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/2017-07-20-06.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}