The COVID-19 pandemic will not stop a local holiday tradition from going forward.
The philanthropic band The S'Aints, best known for its annual Sleighing Hunger holiday benefit concert, will proceed with its 10th anniversary to benefit local food banks. But, with provincial pandemic guidelines making a live in-person concert next to impossible, this year's show will go virtual.
Drummer Jeff Burrows said not only will the show go on, but it's already been filmed.
"The group was 100 per cent behind the idea," said Burrows. "The concern was whether we could get together and film it. So, everybody maintained their distance, and we went back to St. Clair, where the show began ten years ago, to film it."
The finished product will be broadcast virtually on Friday, December 18 at 7 p.m., and tickets can be purchased online. Tickets are $25 for general admission and $50 for a family bundle. Packages including the group's Christmas album and tenth-anniversary live album are also available. Proceeds will benefit Windsor-Essex's Unemployed Help Centre food bank and the Outreach for Hunger food bank in Chatham-Kent.
The hour-plus show will feature holiday classics, along with a couple of pieces written by lead vocalist Jody Raffoul.
The concert is sponsored by St. Clair College, and LiUNA Local 625.
"I’m confident that everyone in Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent will continue to support this year’s on-line presentation of the concert and CD-sale because, although its format may have changed, its vital purpose of helping the under-advantaged remains the same," said St. Clair College President Patti France in a statement. "If any year has ever warranted the old show-business expression ‘the show must go on’, it is this one."
The concert will be broadcast on the Sessions website, and tickets are now available there.