Goat yoga, Venezuelan Culture Days and Standup comedy: Calgary entertainment this weekend

We're approaching the weekend, and even though the cold weather has hit, there are still plenty of hot entertainment options out there. Here's a roundup from Ellis Choe of The Homestretch.

Venezuelan Culture Days

Venezuelan Culture Days are on now in Calgary, and Grammy-award-winning musician Hector Molina will be a part of it with a special lecture on the cuatra.

"Hector Molina … will let us know about the evolution of the different sounds of the cuatra, our national folkloric instrument," said Carla Marcano, the event co-ordinator. "We share this tradition also with Colombia. And it's a very important instrument for us. It's similar to the ukulele, and the sounds that these new players can make in these instruments are amazing."

You can catch that live-stream lecture this Saturday at 11 a.m. Venezuelan Culture Days also includes films. There are three documentaries focusing on Venezuelan culture and history, being live-streamed tonight at 7 p.m. and Friday morning at 11 a.m.

Go to Venezuelan Culture Days for more information and to access all of this — for free.

Free admission at Glenbow Museum

Another cultural outing people ought to know about is at the Glenbow Museum, which is giving visitors free admission for two weeks starting this Saturday until Nov. 22.

The museum is set to start renovations soon, so this is a last chance gift to head out and see the exhibits, and it's happening every day from noon till 5 p.m.

Current exhibits include Treasures of the Mineral World, Porchraits: Calgary Families in Isolation During COVID-19 and Where Symbols Meet: A Celebration of West African Achievement. For more details from the CEO of the Glenbow Museum, tune in to The Homestretch on Friday morning. 

Grinch-mas Goats at Granary Road

If you're into alpacas, goats, and The Grinch, or if you just like to have a lot of fun, Granary Road is holding a Grinch-mas Goats festival this weekend.

Granary Road is a 37-acre outdoor adventure park and farmers market just south of Spruce Meadows.

"Every year at Christmas, Granary Road does an over-the-top Christmas market, but it always stars our alpacas, and our alpaca photos have become quite famous in Calgary," said Granary Road's Jane Walter-Lockwood.

"So this year, the Granary Road goats decided that they wanted to get some of the spotlight, so they invited the Grinch to get together with them, and put on their own Christmas special called the Grinchmas Goats at Granary Road."

There will be goat tales in the greenhouse, and that means you can play with the goats while listening to a Grinch story. You can also take a Bah Humbug wagon ride throughout the park, enjoy a Grinch parade, and indulge in Grinchy hot chocolate, Grinch perogies, Grinch s'mores, and, of course, Grinch cocktails.

You can also enter the Sour Grinchy Frown contest — the winner gets goat-yoga tickets.

Go to Granary Road for more information.

Standup Comedy

Calgary's own standup comedian Brittany Lyseng is doing some shows at Yuk Yuk's on Friday and Saturday night. Here's a clip from a recent show.

Go to Yuk Yuk's for more information and your socially-distanced tickets.

Live Music

The National Music Centre continues its afternoon classical music series at the King Eddy.

This Sunday, the NMC along with Prairie Debut presents Trio Nobara — that's a violinist, a cellist and a pianist — performing a program that celebrates composers from three musical periods. The trio consist of Akiko Tominaga, Kathleen De Caen and Laura Reid.

Also, Calgary singer/songwriter Michael Bernard Fitzgerald is performing live almost every night with another Calgary artist for the whole month of November. Go to Michael Bernard Fitzgerald for tickets and more information.

With files from The Homestretch.