Kodiak Arts Council to host Blackwater Railroad Company for 4th of July weekend

The pandemic has been particularly hard on the arts community- after all, what is theater and music without an audience? Thankfully, as the world begins to thaw from a long pandemic winter, in-person arts are steadily returning to Kodiak.

Katie Oliver, executive director of the Kodiak Arts Council, is excited to announce that the arts council will host a live and in-person concert for the first time since January of 2020.

“Yeah, so we are super excited to be bringing musicians to town again, we’ve been on hiatus. And of course, we had a couple of concerts canceled in the spring of 2020. So it feels really good to be working on bringing music back to Kodiak. And we’re starting with an outdoor concert on July 3rd, with an Alaskan band named Blackwater Railroad Company,” Oliver said.

Blackwater Railroad Company is a folk-rock group with a unique style- one might say an Alaskan style. The show will be opened by Frank Solivan and Jillian Lea, followed by White Twang and then Blackwater Railroad Company.

The show will be at 6:30 on the evening of Saturday, July 3^rd at the Kodiak State Fairgrounds. Tickets are $25 per person, and available online at the arts council website. The Lions club will be grilling, and a beer garden will be available as well. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own seats.

That’s not all the Kodiak Arts Council is offering- summer programs are back. Oliver explains further.

“So we have our Sum’ Arts for Kids program this summer, which is arts opportunities for youth. This is a program we’ve run for 30 years. And this year, we really tried to put a focus on creating a variety of options for families. So we have some camps that are week long indoor camps. We have some outdoor adventure camps. We have some virtual camps that are running over zoom, or sending kids out fishing with Kodiak marine charters. We tried to think about the variety of options that might be desirable for families right now this summer, and create a little bit of something for everyone,” Oliver said.

Those looking to learn more can find out more at the Kodiak Arts Council website. This includes material on the variety of summer art programs for kids, as well as tickets for the Blackwater Railroad Company showing on the 4^th of July weekend.