We just wanted to remind folks that the Imaginary Cities show on November 26th will not be taking place at Habitat. This show will be at Doc Willoughby's (353 Bernard Avenue) the same night, at the same time. Tickets you've purchased for the show will all still be valid and any tickets purchased online can be picked up at the door the night of the event.

We look forward to seeing you out!

So are you all ready for the big news that Habitat has on this lovely Tuesday afternoon?

We've waited patiently for a very long time to announce these words: Habitat has its new liquor license! (Cue confetti cannons) Yes our dear friends, it's true. Habitat has been granted an event driven liquor primary license.

After numerous city council meetings, re-zoning of the building, an abundance of consultations with the liquor board and the undying support of the community, we are now able to focus on what Habitat is all about: providing Kelowna with a unique community space focused on arts and culture.

So along with the new license comes a few new changes as well. Our hours of operation have been extended from 12:00am to 1:00am and the capacity has increased from 133 to 225 occupants. The main change is that Habitat is now a 19+ establishment - we fought for a minors endorsement but unfortunately liquor and all ages crowds aren't an easy fight to win in any establishment in BC. We will be reviewing this decision again next year as a safe all ages space is very important to the cultural fabric of Kelowna.

We want to take a minute to once again thank everyone who played a part in Habitat's re-licensing. Without the overwhelming amount of support from the City of Kelowna along with the community we would not be where we are today - THANK YOU!

Be sure to come down to one of our next events and celebrate with us!

Hola amigos!

Due to unforseen circumstances, Salsa Night on Saturday, July 23rd has been cancelled. Unfortunately this means that you'll have to wait another two weeks to dance the night away with your friends at Habitat and Latinesque but the good news is that our next Salsa Night on Saturday, August 6th will be a big celebración to mark Latinesque's 3rd year of Twisted Salsa Saturdays as well as another special Habitat surprise (more on that next week...)!

Grab your friends (and dancing shoes) and come down to Habitat on August 6th for 2 for 1 Salsa Night featuring live Latin music, food and drink specials, and, of course, beginner Salsa Lessons with Warren and Jenni from Latinesque Dance Studio!

Now, if you can't wait until August 6th to get your Salsa on, visit the Latinesque website to see how you can hone your dancing skills with Warren and the crew at their weekly lessons.

Visit our Twisted Salsa Saturdays event page for more information on Salsa Nights at Habitat.

Today the nominees were announced for the 2011 Western Canadian Music Awards and Habitat has been nominated once again for Live Music Venue of the Year!

Being nominated in itself is like a little award and we are very proud and honored to be up against the likes of the Beat Niq Jazz and Social Club in Calgary, the Starlite Room in Edmonton, the Exchange in Regina, and the West End Cultural Centre in Winnipeg. Last year the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver took home the title and we hope to keep the award in BC this year!

We would also like to say a big congratulations to our pals in We Are the City for their Rock Recording of the Year and Independent Album of the Year nominations for their album High School.

This year, BreakOut West and the Western Canadian Music Awards are taking place in Whitehorse, Yukon from October 20th - 23rd.

Visit the BreakOut West website for full list of nominees.

It's hard to believe that we've already hit May but it is here and that means one step closer to summer and one step closer to our license (fingers crossed...).

While we patiently wait for change, Habitat Owner and Director of Operations Quinn Best (pictured left with Mayor Sharon Shepherd and his wife Katrina) has been acknowledged for the change that he has made in our community.

On April 27 the City of Kelowna Community and Civic Awards were held at the Kelowna Community Theatre. Quinn was awarded with a Civic Award for 'Honor in the Arts' which goes to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in Kelowna through cultural and/or artistic efforts.

Quinn was recognized for his cultural contributions through his involvement with Habitat. Music BC, BreakOut West 2010 and the Western Canadian Music Awards and his various other arts and culture efforts.

"Thanks to all the stakeholders and City staff that supported this nomination. The last six years I've seen a lot of positive changes in the cultural life of Kelowna and it's been a blessing to be recognized for the impact of our efforts. Thank you to all of our supporters! This is my passion and I'm honored to receive this award." quoted Quinn Best.

This Civic Award is a huge achievement for Quinn and he was very honored to be nominated and even more so to win. Although it would be nice to put the award on the shelf, sit back and mull over previous accomplishments, Quinn is continually moving forward and is currently in the works for some great arts and culture programming for the Okanagan in 2011!

Between our walls, in the main room you know as Habitat, things were pretty quiet throughout March. We've kept our heads up and have been working on some exciting things with the community, but one of the most exciting parts of March (nay, mayhaps our whole year) was our most recent City Council meeting on Tuesday March 22nd.

Those of you that have been with us for any amount of time are probably somewhat aware of our battles with the local liquor board and that it has been a bit of a challenge to line up the needs of our business and community with the needs of the city. Everything changed that night, and after five years that time has come.

At our meeting we received a positive recommendation from City Council for our event driven liquor license. Our hope is that very soon, even within a couple months time, we'll be operating with our liquor primary license. That would mean is a capacity increase in our room 133 to 235 seats which allows us make shows more accessible and eventually lower prices as we'll be able to pay the bands more at the end of a night. This also means we can start booking some of the bigger acts you've been hoping to see come to the Okanagan.

We'll also be licensed from Monday-Saturday which still leaves Sundays for all-ages shows and other events where liquor isn't appropriate.

We're very excited to have aligned the needs of a community and find a way we can all co-exist and promote local talent, creatives and continue to provide a space for our friends to eat, listen & celebrate.

Dear friends, we have very unfortunate news to relate to you this Monday morning.

Due to a double booking, the Rural Alberta Advantage will not be playing at Habitat with Hooded Fang on April 7, 2011.

This is very disappointing to us but you know we'll have plenty more tasty shows for you down the road and we hope to bring the Rural Alberta Advantage back on their fall tour!

Anyone who purchased tickets for the RAA will be refunded.

Our apologies again and we look forward to seeing you at the next Habitat event!

- Habitat

P.S. As I was writing this post, the RAA's 'Stamp' came on on CBC Radio 3 -  how ironic and disheartening.

Why, Happy New Year! Time is passing by rather quickly for this time of year, maybe that's why this new item was posted mid-way through January. Or maybe it's because we're procrastinators - but probably not.

2011 seems like a year full of new beginnings and endless possibilities. One example being that news on our liquor license should be coming around the mountain in the next few months so we can finally enter the world of black and white and leave this gray area behind.

Also new to Habitat is the launch of our "Need Space" campaign. Everyone knows that Habitat is a unique downtown space that hosts special events and concerts, but did you also know that we've made it super easy to book an event at Habitat? Say you're an event planner looking for a special event space or a band needing a venue for your CD release party: Habitat's got your back. Within Habitat is a group of sharp staff creating unique events with your vision in mind. We provide flexible menus and décor, allowing your ideas to flourish. From concept to clean up, we at Habitat have the passion & expertise to design custom events, for any occasion.

Check out the new "Celebrate" page on our site for more information on rental packages and how to book your next event at Habitat.

The countdown to Christmas is on and for most people that also means that the countdown for time off is on. Same goes for us here at the North Pole (aka freezing Habitat offices) and we wanted to let everyone know that our offices will be closed starting on December 20^th and re-opening again on January 3^rd, 2011. During that time you can feel free to leave us loving voice mail messages or gifts if you so prefer. Just no coal please, we’ve tried to be good this year.

Before we get all wrapped up in the excitement of 2011, let’s take a look back at some of our most exciting highlights of 2010: Cream 5 Year Anniversary (always the best way to bring in the New Year), The Bonfire Ball (with Jason Collett, Zeus, and Bahamas), Hannah Georgas, Bingo Night in Canada, Shad, the celebration of Habitat’s 5^th year (woo!), Hot Hot Heat, BreakOut West (possibly Habitat in it’s prime), and getting our liquor license suspended for a grand total of 58 days! Ok, so the last one was more depressing than exciting but it played a big role in the History of Habitat: 2010 Edition.

So what do you have to look forward to in 2011? We want to make sure that Habitat is keeping up with the times (and staying classy as always) so we’re looking at a few cosmetic touch ups to the space, potentially (and hopefully) a new liquor license, more opportunities for you (the public) to get involved, and, of course, more special events and shows! Be sure to stay tuned to our website for the most current information and listings on upcoming events.

Habitat will be hosting the Centre for Spiritual Living on New Year’s Eve - for more information visit the Centre for Spiritual Living’s website. If you’re feeling bored and find your self wandering the streets pondering what to do, come by and say hi!

From everyone at Habitat, we want to wish you the merriest of Christmases and the happiest of holidays! We want to thank everyone for your continued support through our ups and downs of 2010 and we look forward to seeing you all in 2011! We lift our glasses of rum and egg nog to you all – CHEERS!

Xoxo
Habitat

(Blame the blurry-ness on the rum and egg nog)

Kelowna Is Awesome.com was a local culture/food/drink/fashion blog that was launched in May of 2010. In October, 2010 we chose to voluntarily shut the site down due to conflicting creative differences with the Canada Is Awesome network.

Kelowna Is Awesome was a great site in so many ways because it offered a place to go to where you could find out what was happening around town and to get a unique perspective on the people, places, and things that make Kelowna so awesome.

The main reason behind shutting the site down is that the Canada Is Awesome network runs as a non-profit yet we had no contact with any board of directors nor any support in creating a board, something essential for any non-profit group. We had our sights set on being a community blog and running as a non-profit didn’t quite align with our vision of Kelowna. We have had a lot of community sponsor interest but were never able to pursue these opportunities due to mis-communication with the Canada Is Awesome network. Aside from a basic template which was provided to us; site content was completely contributed by an amazing group of local volunteers - no money was made during this process and we greatly appreciate the time and the effort that all of our contributors put into making the site as awesome as it could be.

The Canada Is Awesome layout works great for bigger cities like Vancouver and Calgary, but as one of the communities that make up the great Okanagan, we decided that maybe a less limiting and more focused community blog would be a better fit. We wanted to make sure that Kelowna still had a community-based blog that could run independently but we also wanted to increase focus to a wider area to include all the small towns and cities around. Instead of just including what’s awesome in Kelowna, we’re going to focus on the whole Okanagan area.

And so we are about to unveil… AwesomeOkanagan.com (or A-OK for short). The Awesome Okanagan site will feature posts by local contributors on everything awesome about the Okanagan (which is a pretty hefty list). We love that fact that as the internet has evolved, we’re allowed the ability for instant dissemination of information and more chances to help support the local businesses and interests we love so much about our towns.

Stay tuned for more information about the launch of A-OK. If you are interested in being a local contributor please contact us!

 
Photo from JeremyOK's flickr stream