The headliners for Coquitlam’s Canada Day celebrations will be lighting up the new plaza stage at Lafarge Lake on Friday, just before the fireworks blast off.
The Famous Players Band — an eight-piece ensemble well-known in Metro Vancouver for its cover music — will entertain a crowd that’s expected to swell to 20,000 people by the night’s end.
Their concert is at 8:30 p.m.
Aimee Sulz, one of four vocalists, said party-goers will hear a range of tunes from 1960s to today, with plenty of Canadiana mixed in. “We have a repertoire of more than 1,000 songs,” the Richmond native said, “so we’ve got lots to choose from.”
Sulz, who has been with Famous Players for 13 years and is currently working on her master’s degree in organizational psychology, said the group performs about a dozen dates a month (on Saturday, it will headline the Golden Spike Days at 9:15 p.m.).
The audience dominates their set list, she said: Day shows are more family friendly but, at night, the band creates a nightclub scene. “My job is to have fun and make sure everybody has fun, too,” Sulz said, adding, “Our gigs are amazing and every one is different. It’s never the same night twice.”
Coquitlam Town Centre Park’s new plaza stage will also see the likes of the Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble (or PSWE) — a classical music group that calls the Evergreen Cultural Centre home — performing at 2:15 p.m. It will be followed by:
• The Faceplants (reggae, rock, rap) at 3:45 p.m. (pictured below)
• The Tequila Mockingbird Orchestra (multicultural) at 5:15 p.m.
• and Good For Grapes (folk/alternative) at 6:45 p.m.
Meanwhile, there will be other entertainment for the city’s eighth annual Canada Day party, on the newly configured site at eastern side of Lafarge Lake.
At the Meadow Stage, the music starts at noon with Aché Brasil and wraps up at 7:45 p.m. with The Pat Chessell Band, a Celtic group.
And, on the Eat Street Stage, catch Clavinova Nights at 3:45 p.m. as well as Ragas and Rhythms of India at 5:15 p.m. and the Revolving Doors Band at 6:45 p.m.
• Coquitlam’s Canada Day is sponsored in part by The Tri-City News. Visit coquitlam.ca/canadaday for the line-up and parking instructions (a free shuttle will run all day from Gleneagle secondary school (1195 Lansdowne Dr.). The fireworks are at 10:30 p.m.
