Starting July 1 and running through September 3, The Butchart Gardens plays host to 20 musical performances on Friday and Saturday nights. These performances are included with the price of an admission ticket or 12-month pass and will be held on the concert stage lawn.
JUNO-award-winning duo Big Little Lions begins the eclectic summer program on July 1 with a blissful marriage of new folk and sophisticated pop. Later in the month, singer-songwriter and gifted storyteller Stephen Fearing takes the stage. Prairie Oyster’s velvet-voiced Russell deCarle performs July 22 and the month concludes with Curtis Clearsky and the Constellations, known for their Indigenous sound that blends hip hop, Latin funk, ska, reggae and blues.
August welcomes BTU (three tremendous songwriters/performers: Barney Bentall, Tom Taylor and Shari Ulrich), the classical and rock/popular music-based Odyssey String Quartet, as well as acoustic blues from three Canadian guitar masters Amos Garrett, Jim Byrnes and Doug Cox. Black Angus with its west coast Celtic music, and guitarist and fiddler duo Adam Dobres and Pierre Schryer wrap up the summer with their early September dates.
A complete summer lineup can be found at butchartgardens.com/summer-entertainment-calendar.
Visitors may enjoy these open-air performances as part of their admission ticket or 12-month pass, festival seating only. Concerts begin at 8 pm.
Until September 11, The Butchart Gardens offers extended hours Thursday through Sunday nights: Thursday and Sunday it offers evening garden viewing, while Friday and Saturday nights focus on night illuminations. From colourful florals in the day to subtle plays of light and shadow in the evening, summer offers breathtaking drama as day fades into night. As dusk falls, thousands of garden lights give a soft magical glow to shrubs, trees and flowers. Night illumination, unlike stadium lighting, is designed to selectively accentuate and highlight beautiful garden features by surrounding them with artistic areas of shadow.
The Gardens are open late evenings as follows: Thursday until 8 pm; Friday and Saturday until 9:30 pm; and Sunday until 6:30 pm. The gardens are open one hour after gates close. The coffee shop and gift store may not be open during late night hours.