It’s East Coast Music Awards week here in Charlottetown and starting this afternoon the city will be flooded with opportunities to see live music from all over the region. There is so much happening it’s hard to keep track of it all, and the challenge is doubly difficult when you have a child, as some venues are “all ages” and some, due to Prince Edward Island’s antediluvian liquor laws, are restricted to those aged 19 and over.

We’re blessed to have, in Murphy’s Community Centre, a significant ECMA venue right at our front door, and with a little work I’ve been able to make sense of what’s happening there, starting this afternoon. There are two separate streams of events happening there this week:

Discovery Stage

During the day the Murphy Centre is the “Discovery Stage,” a free all-ages (update: showed up tonight to find that it’s only all-ages during the day) event:

• Wednesday, April 13th — 5:00 PM to 2:00 AM
• Thursday, April 14th — 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• Friday, April 15th — 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• Saturday, April 16th — 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
• Sunday, April 17th — 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM

The schedule of performers is available as a somewhat confusing PDF file or (in a format that’s possibly not being kept up to date any longer) from the ECMA website for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

MIAFest

During the evening the Murphy Centre is host to “MIAFest” – MIA stands for “Music Industry Associations” – with admission of $10.00 per night payable at the door. I believe that this is also an all-ages event – that’s what they told me when I asked at Music PEI earlier in the week, but I have my doubts given that I was also told this about the Discovery Stage – but there’s nothing in their publicity to indicate this, so buyer-beware:

• Thursday April 14 — 9:00 PM to 1:50 AM
• Friday April 15 — 9:00 PM to 1:50 AM
• Saturday April 16 — 9:00 PM to 1:30 AM

MIAFest also uses the Delta Hotel as a venue, and the events held there are free. The schedule of performers is available here on the Music PEI website, with the times, confusingly, missing AM/PM (everything starts in the evening).