Photo provided Headliners for A Luminous Yuletide will be husband-and-wife duo Ariella & Nicolaas.
The holidays can be a stressful time of year, what with all the presents to buy and family parties to host. It’s never a bad idea to take a pause, breathe and take in the holiday atmosphere.
That’s exactly what A Luminous Yuletide, hosted by Wildflower Creations and Rentals, LLC, sets out to do. From 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday, the Commons will be aglow with live music by locally and nationally recognized talent, a curated holiday market and catered hor d’ouevres.
Tickets for the remaining 10 days before the event cost $13.39 and can be purchased on Eventbrite. Space is limited.
Serving as headliners for A Luminous Yuletide will be husband-and-wife duo Ariella & Nicolaas, who have performed in Columbus before at Wildflower’s “Through the Looking Glass” festival. Based out of Greenville, South Carolina, the pair first met when guitarist Nicolaas Kraster heard Ariella McManus performing at a restaurant one night.
“I joined his band and we played in a rumba flamenco gypsy swing European kind of style band and that lasted for a few years and then ended,” McManus said. “And we had played as a duo in between then because we just are musicians and kept gigging, just the two of us, after the band had ended.”
The two then became part of a five-piece jazz-funk band called Ari and the Alibis, which lasted about nine years. After that band ended, Kraster and McManus kept performing together as a duo and began uploading videos online. Then on New Year’s Eve about three years ago, the two started a challenge where they would upload a song every day on TikTok for 150 days.
“It was exhausting,” McManus said. “It was fun and we loved getting the results because it ended up snowballing and we started to gain some followers and some attention and it was really fun. But it was also really hard work being a daily content creator like that so we took a break.”
They have gone on to amass quite the following online, with over 400,000 followers on Facebook alone. McManus said they play a mix of older music and originals, but the foundation for everything they play is love. Their music style takes influence from multiple genres, from funk to blues to motown.
With his background in world music, Kraster said he always tries to bring in elements of other genres like bossa nova and tango to mix it up. This upcoming concert will feature a handful of Christmas songs from them, but Kraster said they will mostly stick to their standard musical styles with original songs and a few covers.
When they perform, he said they also bring a loving, fun energy with them and they enjoy spending time with the audience. Usually, he said they are out in the audience when people arrive, during the break and after the show meeting people.
“… it’s a fun night, (that’s) what we’re going for. It’s like, some of the songs are tear jerkers, some of the songs are funny,” Kraster said. “Just like this stylistic roller coaster, we take to take people on a little bit of an emotional one too, but the main vibe of it is just loving. Like we’re very cool to be there, we’re grateful that the people are there and we want to put on a good show and have fun with them.”
Other acts during the night will include local pianist Annette Thompson from 4:30 to 5 p.m., followed by cellist and multi-instrumentalist Michael G. Ronstadt from 5:15 to 6 p.m. New York City-based songwriter Taylor Bradshaw will then perform from 6:20 to 6:45 p.m. before Ariella & Nicolaas take the stage.
The event will also feature an artist market with vendors such as June Bugs LLC, Faith Mebli, Keep It Simple and several others. Hor d’oeuvres from Honey & Herbs Catering, the catering side of Miel On Wheels, will be available as well as treats from Cookie Paradise.
