Next Acoustic Open Stage, Friday, March 17, 2023 at 7:30 pm


The Black Walnut Acoustic Open Stage will be back at the Mill Courtland Community Centre, 216 Mill Street in Kitchener on Friday, March 17, 2023 at 7:30 pm. This will be on the St. Patrick’s Day date which we will observe with no intoxicating substances and Irish songs are optional. (The next Date for this event is April 21st.) Doors open and performers’ sign-up starting at 7:15pm.

Thanks to everyone who helped to organize, performed, or just showed up last night at the Black Walnut Acoustic Open Stage. After some initial technical delays we were treated to 17 great performances and 37 total attendance. Not bad, after a 3 year break. It was great to be back. A list of the performers is included at the end of this message. We hope all performers will bring their windscreens that we gave out last month.

Right now it looks like we won’t be changing much from the way we did things in 2019 except that we won’t plan to have a featured act until we have tried the Open Stage out for the first season. We are concerned that, like every other event or service in the community, we will lose volunteers with little or no advance notice because of health issues. The people that are essential and hardest to recruit are those with the ability to organize, move equipment to and from the Community Center and actually set-up and produce the event. If that sort of thing sounds good to you please contact us and we can discuss how that can happen.

A few things that we are expecting are:

  1. We will set up tables and chairs, stage with sound and lights and coffee bar just like before, except we will do what we can to allow the attendees to maintain 2m social distancing;
  2. Masks will not be mandatory, but encouraged;
  3. To protect the club mics, performers will use removable foam pop filters (windscreens) which they will obtain, install, remove and keep for the next time. We still have only a few new windscreens left over from last month;
  4. Anyone arriving at the Community Centre who has been recently exposed to or has symptoms of COVID, Flu, RSV or other contagious illness is directed to stay away. AND

It will be very satisfying to welcome many of our experienced and first-time performers and audience members.
Bring your guitars, accordions, voices, acoustic instruments of all sorts or just your eyes and ears and make yourself feel at home. Do not feel shy because you have not played for us before.

The doors will open and sign-up for the open stage will start at 7:15 pm. Remember when you sign up you get to play/sing two songs in a set of 10 minutes or less and you need to be ready to start playing when your turn starts so you won’t lose any of your 10 minutes.
The entrance and free parking are at the back of the Mill-Courtland Community Centre and admission is still $3 at the door. the facility is wheelchair accessible, alcohol, smoke and peanut free and every show is different. If you don’t come, you’ll miss it.
If you are having any difficulty with viewing any content, please post a comment or send a private email to: wayne@blackwalnutfolkclub.com
No-Smoking Reminder: The entire Community Centre property is included in the City of Kitchener policy of a total ban on smoking on the property. That includes tobacco, marijuana and other smoking and includes both inside and outside the Community Centre.
At 8 pm we will lock the outside door and put a notice there to say, “The building is closed to all those who are not participating in the Black Walnut Open Stage Event from 7:30 pm – 10 pm. Please knock at the rear doors so that you may be admitted to that event.”

We have posted our Code of Conduct page and other details on our About Page. Our entrance and free parking are at the back of the Mill-Courtland Community Centre and admission is still $3 at the door. The facility is wheelchair accessible, alcohol, smoke and peanut free and every show is different. If you don’t come, you’ll miss it.

On February 17, 2023, the performers at the Black Walnut Acoustic Open Stage were:

Dan Patterson
Neil Lightt
Ron Hammar
Lawrence Cresswell
Dan Hergott and Ellen Hergott
Jakki Annerino with Wayne Cheater
Doug Blair (New to Black Walnut)
Gordon Castle
Richard Reinhardt
Jack Cooper
David Maranta
David Lum – Singer/Songwriter with Kathy Lepp
Kathy Lepp (New to Black Walnut) with David Lum – Singer/Songwriter
Arthur Wayne Cheater with Jakki Annerino
Paul Rempel
Cam and Pat
Barb Scott


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *