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<div><strong><em>"Welcome to An Evening In The Valley..."</em></strong>
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<div>Hi friends, my name is Dan Tait - I'm here to tell you about <strong>An Evening In The Valley. </strong>
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<div>For more than a decade, <strong>An Evening In The Valley</strong> has been one of those rare places where music, hospitality, and community all found a unique home together. Since 2015, Craig Milton &amp; Deb Taylor have welcomed artists and audiences into their home - inviting them in together to share space in an intimate listening environment, all while feeding the artists, putting them up overnight, selling the show out, and eventually becoming the most profitable gig in town.
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<div>In August 2026, the <strong>Bald Range Fire destroyed all the structures on their property</strong>, including the spaces where An Evening In The Valley hosted their performances. Craig &amp; Deb are determined to rebuild their home and their lives... We're asking the community to help them rebuild something that insurance cannot fully replace: <strong>An Evening In The Valley. </strong>
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<div><strong>Our Goal: $100,000</strong>
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<div>Insurance will help Craig &amp; Deb rebuild their home, office, garage, and many of their personal belongings. But An Evening In The Valley (AEiTV) was never a business - it was a passion project.
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<div>Craig &amp; Deb built AEiTV out of passion and love for the transformative power of live shows. They never took a dollar, and have always been grateful for the opportunity to not only host these artists in such a meaningful space, but also to catch the show! To be present for these performances has been such a gift for them, and for the AEiTV community at large.
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<div>And while they intend to continue hosting house concerts when the time is right, rebuilding a home, an office, and shelter for their animals already represents an enormous undertaking... Building a new music venue on top of all of that isn't something they can do alone.
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<div><strong>That's where we come in. ❤️‍</strong>
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<div>Our goal is to raise <strong>$100,000</strong> <strong>to rebuild An Evening In The Valley. </strong>
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<div>The bulk of these funds will go toward constructing a new <strong>four-season dedicated performance space</strong>.
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<div>Remaining funds will help replace the infrastructure lost in the fire: Production equipment, lighting, cables, tables, chairs, staging, audio &amp; video recording equipment, and the countless little irreplaceables that accumulate over years of putting on shows.
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<div><strong>We're asking for your help to build the next chapter of An Evening In The Valley.</strong>
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<div><strong>It All Started With One House Concert...</strong>
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<div>Like most things, AEiTV had modest roots. In 2015 Sandy McAfee was running her <strong>Heart In The House</strong> house concert series, and helping others discover the magic of hosting &amp; attending house concerts themselves. With Sandy's encouragement &amp; know-how, Craig &amp; Deb hosted their first show in Kelowna - presenting <strong>Tiger Moon</strong> in their living room.
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<div>From that point, they were hooked. They had seen a house show or two before, but to host them... That was something entirely different, and they loved it.
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<div>Eventually Craig &amp; Deb moved to Summerland - the place on Biagioni Rd... Some of you reading this will know that place. They built an outdoor stage and continued hosting concerts, bringing in <strong>Tiger Moon</strong> once again, as well as friends and favourites like <strong>Joshua Smith.</strong>
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<div>Then in 2018, AEiTV found its forever home... Denike Street, in the Prairie Valley area of Summerland. A beautiful &amp; quiet rural setting surrounded by rolling hills. When you pulled up to Denike it always felt like this secret little hiding spot in plain sight...
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<div>This is where AEiTV really began to grow.
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<div>It was here where Craig &amp; Deb expanded their house concerts, and their community... Craig, Deb, Dane and Bonnie Milton, along with a host of other friends and family members, dove wholeheartedly into creating <strong>meaningful performances for listening audiences</strong> while offering <strong>extraordinary hospitality to the artists </strong>who came through their doors.
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<div>Over the years, they presented 80 shows.
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<div>Touring artists from afar came to play; <strong>Scott Cook &amp; Pamela Mae, Noah Derkson, Ryan McMahon, Sam Balson, WiL &amp; Co, Leeroy Stagger &amp; Ryland Moranz, Joe Nolan, Claire Coupland, Jory Kinjo &amp; Aaron Young, Jake Vaadeland, Maddie Storvold, Brandon Isaak </strong>- and still, so many more.
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<div>The venue also became an important stage for Okanagan artists, including; <strong>Kailee Duggan, Josh &amp; Bex, nightshades, Aidan Mayes, Rusty Someone, Kansas Lee, Brent Tyler, Garrett Scatterty, Michael Averill, myself </strong>- and again, still, so many more.
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<div>It was also here on Denike where they developed the animal sanctuary. Goats, sheep, ducks, chickens, dogs and so many animals have spent their golden years on this property - often aged out from profitability in farming systems. Audiences got to know the elder dogs that would find their homes at AEiTV, gleefully greeting and wagging their tails at the attention.
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<div>Recently Michael Averill wrote a song about An Evening In The Valley<strong> </strong>, and performed it at his debut performance on March 21st, 2026... It'll tell you the long &amp; the short of it.
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<div>No list of names, or stories, or experiences can explain what this place was.
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<div>You had to experience it... And, with your help, we can again.
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<div><strong>For Artists, It Was A Haven</strong>
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<div>Life on the road can be difficult. You're away from home, you're driving for hours, your diet plan likely flew out the window back in Revelstoke. Your whole life is the vehicle, the next show, and the band around you (if you're lucky.) Some times you get a packed room and chicken fingies for dinner, others you'll have an empty room and a promoter breathing down your neck...
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<div>But always, if you had AEiTV on your list of tour dates, you could expect a sold out show with a listening audience waiting for you. Good people would greet you, feed you healthy and delicious vegan fare, put you up, give you privacy, and have morning coffee with you in the morning before you hit the road.
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<div>It was a safe environment for an artist to be distinctly them.
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<div>These kinds of gigs can be a once-in-a-lifetime experiences... But for those of us that got to perform AEiTV, we were really fortunate to build a close relationship with Craig, Deb, Dane &amp; Bonnie - and it went from "a music venue" to "our buddies' place."
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<div>This venue has kept artists' careers alive.
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<div>I know there have been musicians who arrived tired, discouraged, road worn and questioning whether this traveling troubadour life was still worth pursuing...
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<div>And they left recharged.
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<div><strong>For The Audience, It Was A Haven Too...</strong>
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<div>If you're on the mailing list, you know the routine. About ten days before a show, an e-mail would arrive from Craig. Tickets were live, and you had to <strong>act fast.</strong> More often than not the show would sell out on that same day.
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<div>Those seats became coveted for many reasons... People understood that something special happened when songwriters came through AEiTV. They got a great show, and usually got more from the artist than you would at a pub show. The artist was comfortable, so they'd start to get a little risky and play something new, or engage in banter with the crowd...
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<div>You didn't just get to see an artist perform, <strong>you got to see artists fly. </strong>
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<div>Audiences got to know the ins and outs of these artists' songs - the stories behind them. You would often hear the breath between vocal lines, or maybe the wavering of their voice in a particularly emotional moment...
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<div>And because these moments were so charged, and the audience &amp; artist could see each other so clearly, suddenly friendships were growing. Deeper connections than we could get at any old pub show or stadium show.
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<div>These shows were/are something people need. The mailing list kept growing, because we knew how powerful those shows were.
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<div><strong>When The World Shut Down - The Shows Didn't Stop...</strong>
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<div>COVID came - and as many of you know it put a big halt on many of the performances around the world. Artists weren't sure if we could do it anymore... Online performances were okay - in a pinch - but nothing beats that live feedback of a real audience, listening in to each part of a song.
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<div>Gathering together - <strong>the very thing that An Evening In The Valley was built on</strong> - became extraordinarily charged and difficult.
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<div>So, AEiTV adapted. They opened up their driveway... A crazy tiered driveway that actually worked incredibly well for shows. It was like a socially distanced amphitheatre, and driveway concerts became part of the story of AEiTV. They were so much fun, but also so important to the community of show-goers and artists alike.
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<div>At a time when people were isolated and afraid, unsure of one another and repeatedly being told to stay home, these concerts provided something we all desperately needed. A way to gather again safely, where we could feel the notes of the song in our chests.
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<div>Laughter, familiar faces, community.
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<div><strong>The Barn</strong>
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<div>Eventually concerts returned in full, and in summertime that meant <strong>The Barn Stage. </strong>Artists would step onto the stage and perform for a seated listening audience, only occasionally interrupted by the call of a nearby rooster.
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<div>The concert venue was an actual barn for the animal sanctuary. It served as storage for tractor, tools, and occasionally wandering chickens over the winter. Craig, Deb, Dane &amp; Bonnie would undertake the enormous cleanup required to transform the space from winter chicken resort back into one of the most beloved little stages in interior BC.
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<div>Just this past spring, Dane and Craig rebuilt and expanded the stage, and another summer of concerts had just begun... None of us had any idea how little time we would have with it.
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<div><strong>Winter Nights in The Office</strong>
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<div>After COVID, AEiTV developed another personality during the colder months... The concerts moved into Craig &amp; Deb's office.
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<div>Fifty or sixty people would squeeze into the room while an artist performed right beside the woodstove. It was cold outside, but so warm inside.
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<div>These shows were incredibly intimate... You could feel the energy in the air, and you could hear a pin drop.
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<div>And it's here where the post-concert shenanigans would happen. Artists would stick around with Craig &amp; Deb, and anyone else who wasn't ready to leave. Instruments would come back out, songs would be traded, records got played late into the night - or early into the morning if you were playing Record Roulette... I got to spend my first hours chatting with my forever partner Aidan Mayes in one of these post-concert rituals.
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<div>The office was a special stage. All of them were.
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<div><strong>Community Takes Care of Each Other...</strong>
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<div>Craig &amp; Deb have this way of showing up for people when they're in need... I remember they showed up big time when Kentucky Eileen was on their Drive to Thrive Campaign. They contributed with a financial donation and they hosted us for one of those driveway concerts...
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<div>When Aidan Mayes was going through a particularly difficult season of life and needed support to create a new record - the album that eventually became Dream Again - Craig &amp; Deb stepped forward and helped organize a fundraising concert, and again, contributed financially.
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<div>Craig goes to shows all over the valley, even if he's seen an artist 100 times - he does his best to make it out and support them. They have spent years investing in musicians, friends, family, animals and their community - because that's what they love to do.
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<div>That's how they live. In fact, <strong>Craig &amp; Deb</strong> <strong>got married on the Denike Property.</strong>
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<div>Some of their favourite musicians-turned-family joined for that part of the story too. I got to officiate their joining, and Joshua Smith performed the evening after the ceremony.
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<div>Music became part of the property - it has been carefully woven into every blade of grass and every surrounding tree.
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<div><strong>What Happens Now?</strong>
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<div>Right now, rebuilding a concert venue is understandably not Craig &amp; Deb's first priority. They've only *just* been displaced from their home, and so their focus is on navigating the aftermath of the fire, ensuring their animals are safe, beginning the process of rebuilding their home and finding some sense of normal again...
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<div><strong>This fundraiser is about what comes next... </strong>
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<div>There is no expectation that construction begins tomorrow, or that shows will resume immediately. This is an extended community effort so that when Craig and Deb are ready to think about AEiTV again, the resources will be waiting for them.
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<div>More cohesive plans will begin taking shape, likely in early 2027.
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<div>For now, let's give them something extraordinarily valuable:
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<div><strong>The comfort in knowing that when they're ready to rebuild this community, the community will be there to help them do it. </strong>
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<div><strong>Help us raise $100,000. </strong>
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<div>This will help us build a new four-season venue, with a stage. This will help us bring artists back down to Denike Street, and to bring audiences back to the shows.
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<div>This will help us bring Craig, Deb, Dane &amp; Bonnie to their favourite spot - at the back of the show watching it all unfold with the rest of us.
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<div><strong>As an added bonus, donations of $1000 or more will have the donor's name permanently etched onto the new stage. </strong>A small way to recognize those who helped build it.
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<div>Thanks for reading along, and considering supporting such an important community hub. ❤️
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Grant Thompson

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Anonymous

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"An Evening In The Valley Fire Recovery Fund"

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"An Evening In The Valley Fire Recovery Fund"

Still $75,400 to go. Help us build momentum.