In the Soil Arts Festival

In the Soil Arts Festival An explosion of creativity in downtown St. Catharines 27-29 April 2018.

Saturday is the BIG one 💥 From morning markets to late-night dance floors, we’re filling every corner of your day with a...
08/20/2025

Saturday is the BIG one 💥 From morning markets to late-night dance floors, we’re filling every corner of your day with art, music, and magic.

Here's your perfect ITS day:
🔹 Treasure hunt at the Vendor Bender Makers Market
🔹 Step into Dear Bear’s immersive world
🔹 Catch bold new theatre from Sahar Saeidi, Ren Reid, and Kosar Dakhilalian
🔹 Experience one-on-one tarot-meets-theatre with Michael Cicchini
🔹 Close it out at the All Denim Dance Party in honour of Kahlin Holmes ❤️

Sept 13 in downtown St. Catharines. Grab your tickets or pass and make it count: https://bit.ly/ITSAF2025

Day 1 will be coming in HOT! 🥵🔥Friday, Sept 12, we’re kicking things off with:7–11pm – Dear Bear Multi-Arts: Why Don’t W...
08/18/2025

Day 1 will be coming in HOT! 🥵🔥

Friday, Sept 12, we’re kicking things off with:

7–11pm – Dear Bear Multi-Arts: Why Don’t We Together @ The Robby
8pm – Colleen Coco Collins @ The Robby
9pm – Carson McHone: Pentimento Listening Party + Workshop Performance @ The Robby - with Allie Blumas, Deanna Jones 👀

Come early, stay late, and don’t miss a thing. Tickets + passes available now: https://bit.ly/ITSAF2025

Dip your toes in… or dive all the way in at In the Soil Arts Festival! 👀Grab a full festival pass and see EVERYTHING (ou...
08/16/2025

Dip your toes in… or dive all the way in at In the Soil Arts Festival! 👀

Grab a full festival pass and see EVERYTHING (our personal recommendation), or snag tickets to the shows you’ve got your eye on.

With a pass, you can catch every Nest Artist’s brand new piece, the Pentimento listening party, Dear Bear’s immersive installation, and the All Denim Dance Party - why not do it all?!?

Sept 12–13 | Downtown St. Catharines | Tickets + passes here: https://bit.ly/ITSAF2025

We planted in June, nurtured in July + August… and now the harvest is here! ❤️🎟 Tickets are ON SALE NOW for In the Soil ...
08/14/2025

We planted in June, nurtured in July + August… and now the harvest is here! ❤️

🎟 Tickets are ON SALE NOW for In the Soil Arts Festival: Part Two – Harvesting the Soil

📅 Sept 12–13, 2025
📍 Downtown St. Catharines

It’s In the Soil Arts Festival, so obviously we’ve got interactive installations, intimate concerts, theatre, comedy, and more - including four brand-new works from our Nest Artists, grown over a 9-month residency.

PLUS special performances from Carson McHone, Dear Bear Multi-Arts, Colleen Coco Collins and more!

✨ Come enjoy the fruits of a year’s worth of creativity. Get your tickets now:
https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/in-the-soil-multi-arts-festival-part-two-harvesting-the-soil

TONIGHT = THE GRAND FINALE of In the Soil: Tilling the Soil 🔥We’re closing it out with laughs, chaos, and serious dancin...
06/20/2025

TONIGHT = THE GRAND FINALE of In the Soil: Tilling the Soil 🔥

We’re closing it out with laughs, chaos, and serious dancing. Here’s what’s up:

🎤 8 PM – DEEJAY EMCEE

Improv duo. Dream team. Fully unhinged.

🤡 9 PM – SUITCASE COMEDY CABARET

It’s not ITS without them - you already know.

🪩 10:00 PM – MELT DANCE PARTY

DJ will bring the heat.

🎟 Come through with your full fest pass, Friday pass, or grab an individual ticket for just one show. DANCE PARTY PWYC

https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/in-the-soil-festival

Let’s goooo 🔥🌀

Meet Kosar Dakhilalian ✨A theatre artist, writer, director, and educator, Kosar’s work explores space, story, and commun...
06/18/2025

Meet Kosar Dakhilalian ✨

A theatre artist, writer, director, and educator, Kosar’s work explores space, story, and community. Her practice is rooted in collaboration and shaped by the people and places around her. As a 2025 Nest Resident, she’s been developing new, locally grounded work through a nine-month creative incubation with Suitcase in Point.

🔍 Her work:

POMEGRANATE AND FEATHERS is a free adaptation of the Greek myth of Persephone, set in Niagara and about Niagara. The play is the fruit of Kosar Dakhilalian and Michael Anthony’s collaboration as they take this opportunity to discover and learn about the rich history of Niagara Region

🌀 Her process:

Kosar collects words like shiny objects. Fragments gathered on train rides, in conversations, and across shifting cityscapes. She writes in motion and creates through community.

Catch it at the Nest Artist Resident Scratch Night

📅 Thursday, June 19 | 7:00–10:00 PM

🎟️ $15 single ticket, $25 Thursday pass, $40 weekend pass

🌱 Tilling the Soil kicks off TOMORROW!Come for a single show or stay for the whole ride - there are multiple ways to dig...
06/18/2025

🌱 Tilling the Soil kicks off TOMORROW!

Come for a single show or stay for the whole ride - there are multiple ways to dig in:

🎟️ $40 full festival pass

🎟️ $25 single day pass

🎟️ $15 single event ticket

Art. Music. Clown. Parade. Dancing. All in downtown St. Catharines. Let’s let our hair down and get our hands dirty.

https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/in-the-soil-festival

Meet Sahar Saeidi ✨A poet and plainspeaker, Sahar writes to connect. With her roots, her body, her people, and the world...
06/17/2025

Meet Sahar Saeidi ✨

A poet and plainspeaker, Sahar writes to connect. With her roots, her body, her people, and the world around her. She’s drawn to pattern, consequence, and the emotional truth hiding in ordinary language. As a 2025 Nest Resident, she’s been developing new, locally rooted work through a nine-month creative incubation with Suitcase in Point.

🎧 Her work:

An audio-visual set that asks more questions than it answers. Sahar explores luck, taboo, cliché, and the strange comfort of shared uncertainty. It’s curious, intimate, and full of “I don’t know but I know” energy.

🌀 Her process:

She speaks in feeling and writes in plainness. Sahar documents the moment, traces its patterns, and cross-checks it with history. Her words bridge difference through the soft clarity of saying what’s true.

Catch it at the Nest Artist Resident Scratch Night

Check out Sahar's playlist! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/23BPWbFZNHGz42ob25hUqj?si=1163be06aa054bd9&pt=a3f4410cb5463fd42d65fb4afc135f57

📅 Thursday, June 19 | 7:00 to 10:00 PM

🎟️ $15 single ticket, $25 Thursday pass, $40 weekend pass

Meet Michael Cicchini ✨A believer in everyday magic - the kind found in food, art, and breath. Michael is a multidiscipl...
06/16/2025

Meet Michael Cicchini ✨

A believer in everyday magic - the kind found in food, art, and breath. Michael is a multidisciplinary storyteller working across theatre, music, visual art, and writing. He is one of our 2025 Nest Residents and part of a nine-month creative incubation at Suitcase in Point, supporting the development of new, locally rooted work.

🔮 His work: The Journey of Chance

An intimate tarot-reading performance that opens a pocket of space for reflection and possibility. Thoughtful. Mysterious. Full of quiet magic.

🌀 His process:

“Create quickly, make decisions slowly.”

Michael builds outward from a single image or feeling, following instinct over outcome. It’s a slow unfolding; an invitation to listen, adjust, and keep going.

Catch it at the Nest Artist Resident Scratch Night

Check out Micheals spotify playlist! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/36CIEICuF0jFLaV1eux1iG?si=K3YChAJrRJaAA4Zvft_bzA&pi=eiBxBh3uSMGQg

📅 Thursday, June 19 | 7:00–10:00 PM

🎟️ $15 single ticket • $25 Thursday pass • $40 weekend pass

BAND-EMONIUM is going to be wild 🎸💫 Thursday night. Late-night. Full volume.Two genre-defying Niagara acts take the stag...
06/16/2025

BAND-EMONIUM is going to be wild 🎸💫 Thursday night. Late-night. Full volume.

Two genre-defying Niagara acts take the stage for a sweaty, soulful, sonic explosion of a show.

🎤 Zach Bury

Raw, heartfelt, and full of soul. Zach’s music moves from folk to blues to R&B, with lyrics that grab your hand and don’t let go. Expect stomps, claps, and a lot of feeling.

🎶 Sunshine Express (S.EX)

It’s rock, it’s noise, it’s ambient chaos. A full-band spectacle where flashing lights and fuzzed-out sounds collide with emotion and intensity.

⚠️ Flashing lights + explicit language

📅 Thursday, June 19

🕙 10 PM – Midnight

🎟️ $15, or included in your Thursday Pass ($25) or Weekend Pass ($40)

https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/in-the-soil-festival

Meet Ren Reid ✨A lover of chaos, comedy, and all things offbeat, Ren creates work that is physical, political, and never...
06/15/2025

Meet Ren Reid ✨

A lover of chaos, comedy, and all things offbeat, Ren creates work that is physical, political, and never quite what you expect. Their creative world blends clown, drag, and curiosity. As a 2025 Nest Resident, they’ve been developing new, locally rooted work through a nine-month creative incubation with Suitcase in Point.

🎭 Their work: Menace to Society

A clown struggles to survive under the rule of a ruthless King. Will they end his reign of terror, or crumble under the weight of the oligarchy? Join us for a night of absolutely no nonsense, as Ren and company share an excerpt of their play-in-process.

🌀 Their process:

It starts with a walk and a playlist. Movement comes first, then montage, then meaning. Ren builds from music and mood (e.g. “Money” from Cabaret).

🎧 Listen to the OFFICIAL Rennis the Menace playlist through the link in our bio.

Catch an excerpt of Ren's work at the Nest Artist Resident Scratch Night

📅 Thursday, June 19 | 7:00–10:00 PM

🎟️ $15 single ticket, $25 Thursday pass, $40 weekend pass

Lester Trips is coming to In the Soil 🎬🐛An experimental performance duo known for their genre-defying, form-bending, del...
06/14/2025

Lester Trips is coming to In the Soil 🎬🐛

An experimental performance duo known for their genre-defying, form-bending, delightfully strange work. If you like your film and "digital not otherwise specified" with a side of existential earwigs, you’re gonna want to catch this.

🎞️ Their latest: DAYGAMERS

Part earwig pavilion, part screening room, this 7-minute mixed media short dives into the weird world of 2010s online dating and daytime pick-up artistry. Animated, awkward, and a little bit obsessed.

📍 June 19 + 20
⏰ Ongoing between acts!
🎟️ Included with your Thursday or Friday pass ($25) or Two-Day Pass ($40)

Get tickets now: https://www.zeffy.com/en-CA/ticketing/in-the-soil-festival

Stop by. Stay for 7 minutes. Leave questioning everything.

Address

36 James Street
Saint Catharines, ON
L2R5B8

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A re-imagined Multi [p]Arts Festival

Suitcase in Point, our partnering organizations, and a fantastic assortment of regional and national artists are gearing up to deliver part one of the reimagined In the Soil Multi (p)Arts Festival, ITS Online! Our original, three-day celebration was set to take place in downtown St. Catharines June 5-7 with a program to include an incredible roster of artists delivering innovative work in live theatre, music, comedy, film, interactive workshops, site-specific installations and an opening night multi-arts spectacle! While we are saddened to have to cancel our annual gathering, we have reimagined an exciting new program and look forward to delivering In the Soil: A Multi (p)Arts Festival, starting with Part One: ITS Online. Join us from the comfort of your screens on Friday 22 May at 6pm as we launch a digital series of one-time arts experiences. Events will run from Friday 22 May through Sunday 7 June, and will feature a little something for everyone, including: music, comedy, dance, aerial, theatre and comedy performances, dance parties, panel discussions, family friendly art making workshops, a collage party and more! The full ITS Online schedule will be released very soon! In the meantime, mark your calendars for our exciting launch event with special guests, live performances and a good hour of good times, set for Friday 22 May at 6pm. To make the ITS Online launch extra special, we encourage you to order some food and drink from your favourite local establishments as we join together (while apart) to celebrate our communities, our artists and our shared goal to get through this COVID-19 insanity. ITS Online will be a free series with opportunities to donate. All donations will go toward supporting artist fees throughout our reimagined Multi (p)Arts Festival. Details of the next parts of the festival will unfold over the coming months and will include a “we’re back” street party, live theatre, comedy and music events, and our flagship multi-arts event, Rhizomes. For ongoing updates on the In the Soil Multi (p)Arts Festival, follow us on social media and visit inthesoil.on.ca

Stay well, stay home and stay tuned, Your friends at Suitcase in Point and In the Soil Arts Festival