Electrical fire causes Oakville Centre power outage; upcoming shows cancelled

by

A small, now extinguished electrical fire at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts (OCPA) has caused a facility-wide power outage that has forced the cancellation of all shows at the venue this weekend.

Three sources have separately confirmed to Oakville News that there was a small electrical related fire at the OCPA yesterday, Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, around 5 p.m. in the afternoon.

The fire was quickly extinguished and resolved by the OCPA technical services team and respondents from Oakville Fire.

A power outage related to the fire incident, however, followed afterwards that could not be repaired in time for a performance in the main theatre, the 477-seat AEG Liebherr Auditorium, beginning less than two hours later.

Nobody is believed to have been injured from either the fire or power outage, and there has been no reports of any notable facility damages.

OCPA nor Oakville Fire have not yet released any details about the cause of the fire.

Show cancellations: Oct. 27-29, 2023

Due to the OCPA's ongoing power outage from the incident, all performances that were scheduled to happen this weekend will not take place at the venue.

This includes both: 

The news was first released on social media channels including Facebook and Twitter, stating the reason of the cancellations was a "technical malfunction."

Their website also began showing this status last night:

OCPA says that the "box office will be contacting all ticket buyers," though there is no specific information yet on the status of refunds for purchased tickets.

Representatives for Frankenstein could not be reached, but OCO director Charles Demuynck has told Oakville News that the Brandeburg concert, "is not cancelled. It will still take place this Sunday at 7:30 p.m. somewhere in the greater Oakville area."

Demuynck says this concert is, "a big celebration for us. We’re hoping people will come celebrate and find out where our new, in-Oakville location will be. I’m talking with four or five different places and I’m very confident we will a finalized location sometime Saturday the 28th."

Strangely, this is actually the third time a fire incident has disrupted the OCO's performance schedule: four years ago a fire cancelled a planned performance at St. Simon's church, and the group's last show at St. John's United Church had a mid-show accidental fire alarm.

"We always rise from the ashes," finishes Demuynck, "and we will have that concert on Sunday. It’s just a matter of where that’s all."

This is a developing story. More information will be updated here as it becomes available.

Editor's note: Oakville News reached out to both Oakville Fire and the OCPA for comment on this story. Neither of them have responded as of press time. Any further information provided by OCPA and/or Oakville Fire will be updated into this story if and when provided.