Upside Downtown: Concerts + Art 2026 – Lady Grime & the Prairie Scum, Sparkle Blood

Upside Downtown: Concerts + Art 2026 – Lady Grime & the Prairie Scum, Sparkle Blood

UPSIDE DOWNTOWN
Concerts + Art on Rotary Square, Casa

Thursday, July 16, 2026, 5pm: Lady Grime & the Prairie Scum, Sparkle Blood
Stage Sponsor: Ultimate Auto Care
Community Highlight: Wide Skies
Food Truck Guest: Mangan (Let’s Eat) & Bakari
Craft Night: Family Clay Handbuilding
FREE

Band Bio – Lady Grime & the Prairie Scum:
Fronting Lady Grime is Jacqueline Kennelly, a queer woman hailing from rural Ontario who now calls Lethbridge home with love. Lady Grime is an expression of everything that encompasses Jacqueline’s life, spanning genres, content and forms. When joined by the Prairie Scum, the project stands as a “prairie rock” power trio.

Kennelly holds a bachelor’s degree in music from University of Lethbridge and spends her days working in the audio visual industry while moonlighting as a musician chasing dreams of sharing her music.

Band Bio – Sparkle Blood
Sparkle Blood is a sinewy, no-nonsense power trio based in Lethbridge, Alberta. Their beginnings as a unit – more on that in a minute – are as charming as their music, which comes as a straight shot of supremely tight songcraft delivered in the time honoured guitar/bass/drums combo. Topped off with some of the most winsome harmony singing you’ll hear this year, their forthcoming album ZIP ZAP offers a succinct, melodic meditation on the world today: half outrage, half celebration, and all hooks.

Guitarist/songwriter Tyler Stewart (Starpainter, Atomicos) and drummer Bre Day (Peace For Bombs) are a couple, and their White Stripes-esque beginnings were originally just a fun extension of their relationship and desire to try new things. In 2013, they played their first official gig, which led to a flurry of activity and the eventual release of Denim Tape in 2016. After a little break that ended up flowing right into the pandemic, the duo started picking things up again in 2024. Feeling the the need to fill in both the low and high end of the group sound, they invited local singer-songwriter & musician Bailey Kate into the fold. While initially signing on to “maybe sing some harmonies,” Stewart recalls, “one day she just showed up at practice and had learned all the bass lines, so that was that!”

Bailey’s effortless, locked-in singing acts as a perfect foil for Stewart’s clear & direct singing style, and this should come as no surprise to those who know her work with Lethbridge’s finest twangy songsmiths Starpainter, or from her solo project under her own name, trading in her own brand of luminously elegant songwriting. The pair easily conjure some of the great “boy/girl” singing bands like Juliana Hatfield-era Lemonheads, the Deal-Black axis contained within the Pixies, and inspired pairing of Rick White and Julie Doiron in Eric’s Trip.

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Upside Downtown Concerts + Art 2026 Schedule

Weekly concerts on Rotary Square at Casa every Thursday night after work from 5pm – 7pm. Meet your friends, have a drink, grab a snack, and listen to local music in the downtown core. While you’re visiting, explore the galleries inside Casa.

JULY 2 – Skinny Dyck
JULY 9 – Monks on Call
JULY 16 – Lady Grime & the Prairie Scum, Sparkle Blood
JULY 23 – Moranz & Fremlin, Those Folk
JULY 30 – Joce Ryome, Paul Kype and Texas Flood
AUGUST 6 – Double Rider, Ekkohs
AUGUST 13 – Toni Vere, Mallory Chipman
AUGUST 20 – Midnight Channel
AUGUST 27 POP UP, GET DOWN 5pm until 10pm
The Windbreakers, Hippodrome, The Boom Booms
A summer dance party with three bands, an art market, and we’re closing 8 Street!

See all the arts events happening in Lethbridge here: http://yqlarts.ca
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The Allied Arts Council is thankful to the Upside Downtown sponsors that support arts programming in Lethbridge: FACTOR, Spectrum Ale Works, Westco Construction, Davis Auto Group, City of Lethbridge, Warwick Printing, Tourism Lethbridge, Safeway, Anova Law Group, Wide Skies Music Festival, St. John Ambulance, Sonic Multimedia, MNP, Andrew Hilton. Nectar Tattoo, and Airau.

If you like this event and other free arts programming supported by the AAC, consider donating here: https://bit.ly/AACDonate

Date:July 16th, 2026

Time:5:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Fee:FREE

Location:Casa - Rotary Square

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