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Community Corner

Country Music and Carols by Candlelight

Sing along to festive favorites and radio hits at a holiday fundraiser.

If you’re looking for just the right event to get you into that “Christmas spirit,” a local fundraiser may be your answer.

is in its 22nd year of holiday cheer spreading and musical entertaining. The big concert, sponsored by Cadillac, is a two-day event filled with big-name country stars singing holiday favorites at Escondido’s California Center for the Arts.

“Music stars sing their hits and favorite Christmas carols,” said the event’s founder Steve Vaus in an email to Patch. “And even though it's a big theatre, somehow it feels like sitting around a friend's fireplace for a Christmas caroling party.”

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This year’s lineup includes:

  • Clay Walker: country music legend with 11 gold and platinum albums; 25+ top ten singles; six number one hits. 
  • Jamie O’Neal: Somebody’s Hero, When I Think About Angels, There is No Arizona
  • Whitney Duncan: 2008 Nashville Star contestant; has a song in the new FOOTLOOSE movie; currently being seen by millions of TV viewers each week this fall as she competes for a million dollar prize on Survivor.
  • Buck Howdy (Vaus’ stage name): San Diego's own 2010 Grammy Award winner.
  • Mary James: Christian recording artist and 2010 ICM Award winner (female vocalist of the year)
  • Eve Selis: a local favorite, SD Music Awards Winner and Best Americana Artist

The concert’s net proceeds benefit Rady Children’s Hospital.

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“We encourage them to apply the funds where needed most,” Vaus said.

As far as the “candlelight” part of the show, Vaus said that the end of each concert is punctuated with a familiar holiday ballad and lots of candles.

“At the end of the show the artists and the audience go out to the courtyard of the theatre, everybody gets a candle and we all sing Silent Night,” Vaus said. “It's a real goosebump moment that always has people saying ‘Now I'm in the Christmas spirit!’”

There are plenty of tickets left for this holiday concert, which can be purchased by calling the California Center for the Arts Box Office at 800-988-4253  or online at http://www.StarsConcert.com.

And for the first time, you can give tickets to Carols by Candlelight to a deserving family.

“This year for the first time we've created a way for folks to "gift" tickets to the event to members of the military who might be far from home and need a little more joy in their season,” Vaus said.

Gift tickets for the military can be purchased at http://www.StarsConcert.com and will be deliver in the name of the purchaser to military families.

Carols by Candlelight falls on Dec. 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido, located at 340 N. Escondido Blvd. Aside from Cadillac, Supporting sponsors are KUSI TV, KOGO Radio, Rancho Bernardo Inn, Stone Brewery. Are you ready to get put into the Christmas spirit?

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