A café in Nanaimo’s downtown core is celebrating 10 years in the community with 12 hours of free entertainment.
The anniversary event starts at noon on Saturday, Jan. 27, featuring more than 20 performers throughout the business’ history – as well as some new faces. Those on the list include Fine, New Age Dolls, and Coal Moon.
“There’s people flying back in from the early days…” said Jeremy Van Wyck, with the Vault Café. “It’s pretty cool thinking about the scope of the amount of people who have kind of come up and played their first gig here and moved on, and some people are still here.”
Guests during the day can also expect to enjoy drag performances, miming, and New York-based drummer Chris Corsano who’s played with the likes of Joe McPhee, Jim O’Rourke and Björk. Van Wyck said that every year there is usually a kind of anniversary show, often on a smaller scale, where staff and performers come together and pay respect to the owner Amanda Scott for her hard work.
Although he’s lived in the city for approximately eight years – moving to Nanaimo for the music scene – Van Wyck said he couldn’t imagine the city without the kind of space that the Vault provides.
“Just seeing how many people can move here and find community there … I don’t know how I would’ve met all the friends that I have if not for the place … and what’s interesting is it’s actually people from Nanaimo that started it,” he said.
The Vault Café opened on Jan. 24, 2014, and will celebrate its tin anniversary on Saturday at 499 Wallace St.
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