'Come From Away' musical in Gander, Newfoundland

Route 330 to Gander

We are on route 330 heading to Gander and cross over the 'Musgrove Harbour' historically known as Muddy Cove. 

We pull into the Aviation Museum as we are doing a Harvest Host night here, meaning we get to park in their lot for the night in exchange for going to their museum. It will work well as we are here to see our musical 'Come From Away' so no need to set anything up.

Harvest Host night

Gander Arts and Cultural building

We work on things until it's time for our 'Come From Away' event at the 'Joeseph R Smallwood Arts and Cultural' building. 

Come From Away tells the true story of 6,579 stranded airline passengers and the small town of Gander, Newfoundland, that welcomed them after US airspace closed on September 11th, 2001. 

After the September 911 attack on the World Trade Centre, 38 commercial planes abruptly diverted to Gander's international airport. The town's population of roughly 10,000 nearly doubles overnight as 7000 frightened and confused travellers are stranded. 

For long, long hours passengers are kept inside the planes without knowing the full scale of the terrorists attacks unfolding in the United States. 

Come From Away stage

Led by local residents, the community of Gander and surrounding towns mobilize quickly and turn schools, community halls, churches and even people's own homes into emergency shelters. 

It's a truly heart-warming story that has us laughing, crying and just absolutely enjoying our evening. This story tells the true story of kindness and giving from a small Canadian town and how nervous, scared passengers grew to understand it was all genuine. As the saying goes: On the first day, we had 7000 strangers. On the third day, we had 7000 friends. On the fifth day, we had 7000 family members. 

We had never heard of this musical until a friend, Ann, (Joel's soon to be mother-in-law) who used to live in Gander, told us about it back in February. Tickets were bought months and months ago and here we are :)  It apparently shows all across Canada...a must see if you ever get the chance.