Madison Reeve
Former Kelowna city councillor Ryan Donn will be hitting the stage in a few weeks, sharing not his political perspectives, but his musical talents.
The former two-term Kelowna city councillor, who served from 2014 to 2022, says he didn’t seek re-election to allow more time with his family and to continue to pursue music and the arts.
“Essentially, now it is time to get back to some hobbies. Council didn’t really allow for that, so I am getting back to doing music again. A lot of people actually knew me back in the day from music, doing cultural performances, writing songs, or asking Silk FM on Castanet to play my music many moons ago. So now I am just restarting.”
On Nov. 4, Donn and a few other musicians will be performing an acoustic show at the Creekside Theatre in Lake Country. A number of songs will be Donn’s original music.
“Music got me into politics. It was disagreements on how the city was going with arts and culture that got me driven to go into politics, but it wasn’t actually the core. The core was actually music and supporting our music community, like BreakoutWest and starting Creative Okanagan back in the day,” he said.
While on city council, Donn was vocal in rejecting a bylaw that would make buskers without an official permit illegal in the city’s downtown.
The bylaw never passed.
“Just advocating for allowing live entertainment and music in your community means we have to balance noise with the joy of some noise,” he added.
For tickets to the show and more information, click here.
