BC festivals
Mission: ‘We had the world here’
The Mission Folk Music Festival appears to be weathering the storm. Last year a lightning storm threatened the safety of the performers and audience, and all of Saturday’s performances were cancelled. It cost the festival $35,000 because of the loss of gate receipts. The show’s producer Francis Xavier Edwards and the festival board are also [...]
Whistler writers festival wins reprieve, Teaming with Vancouver International Writers Festival allowed ninth annual Whistler festival
At the tail end of 2009, organizers of the annual Whistler Readers & Writers Festival announced that despite growing attendance rates they would be canceling the event. Not only was it not making money, it wasn’t breaking even. “I always thought that there would be a magic number that we could sustain ourselves at without [...]
Vancouver: Youth orchestra celebrates 50 years
One anticipated highlight of MusicFest Vancouver is the performance by the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. It’s always rewarding to hear this remarkable concatenation of young talent, but this tour is extra-special: 2010 marks the organization’s 50th anniversary. Youth orchestras have been around for a while in many different guises; in recent decades the concept [...]
BC Spirit Festivals News Release, guidelines and application forms available
The Province is providing $3 million this year to support arts and cultural festivals in more than 150 communities across British Columbia through the 2010 Sports and Arts Legacy, announced Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Kevin Krueger. “We created the Legacy to celebrate and renew the pride and excitement British Columbians experienced during [...]
Vancouver: Drawn 2010 flips understanding of drawing sideways
Drawn 2010, Vancouver’s second annual drawing festival, recently kicked off with its first-ever juried exhibition. Titled The Drawing Room, mounted in the Pendulum Gallery, and selected by a knowledgeable group of artists, curators, historians, and critics, the show examines contemporary drawing practice from across the country. Unlike other exhibits in Drawn 2010, however, it is [...]
Vancouver: Visions of Queertopia find expression
The Roundhouse Community Centre might seem like a queer place to find Utopia, and it is. For the next 2½ weeks, the centre is home to the Queer Arts Festival, a heady melange of fine art, music and theatre, affectionately dubbed Queertopia by its organizers. “We thought we’d try to create a place where queer [...]
Burnaby: Hotels pitch in for Burnaby Blues Festival
Two Burnaby hotels are giving back to the community by providing complimentary rooms to recording artists and those involved in the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival. The hotels have also booked local blues acts to play in their entertainment venues during Burnaby Blues Week leading up to the festival, which is on Saturday, Aug. 14. [...]
Vancouver: Powell Street Festival comes home, Podcast play shows personal view of historic park
You would think someone who’s a former writer for CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the corporation’s first person of colour to host a daily national radio program, a standup comedian and actor would be able to put together a 10-minute podcast in his sleep. But Tetsuro Shigematsu says he struggled for months with how [...]
Vancouver: Taiwanese festival to be held in Canada
A Taiwanese cultural festival featuring “crossover” multi-faceted arts, music and culture will be held in the Canadian cities of Vancouver and Toronto from the end of next month through the beginning of September. The event, titled “2010 TELUS TAIWANfest” is being organized by the Taipei Cultural Center in New York and the Asian-Canadian Special Events [...]
Vancouver: Stone-age fun in storytelling, Neanderthal Arts Festival presents fresh and original fare
In a cemetery outside 17th Century London, two trolls meet by the discarded corpse of a hanged judge. If that doesn’t get your attention, nothing will. That’s what the organizers of Vancouver’s newest summer theatre happening, the Neanderthal Arts Festival, are banking on. While naming a festival after the thickest-skulled of our human ancestors might [...]
Lumby festival to bring awareness about local wild salmon
A tasty salmon barbecue, live music and local arts and crafts are just some of the highlights of a music festival planned this weekend at the Freedom Flight Park in Lumby. All proceeds from the 2010 festival, which is expected to become an annual event, will go to support local salmon spawning habitat renewal efforts. [...]
Nakusp Music Fest takes over with weekend entertainment
This last weekend was the biggest event for Nakusp all year, bringing in thousands of tourists to this small village to enjoy the weekend for the Canadian renowned the Nakusp Music Fest. Thousands of participants were treated to a variety of bands over the course of three days. But that wasn’t all. Once people got [...]
Van Dop Gallery Curates Filberg Festival Guest Artist Show
Since its beginnings 28 years ago, the principal objective of the Filberg Festival has been to encourage excellence in all forms of arts and crafts, and to assist in the promotion and sale of quality work. The Festival has established a world-wide reputation for the excellence of the work of our juried artisans, and today [...]
ArtsWells Festival coming up
Island Mountain Arts is a non-profit society and the host organization for the ArtsWells Festival coming up in Wells July 30 to Aug. 2. Island Mountain Arts celebrates its 33rd Annual School of the Arts this year offering quality arts courses, workshops, events, and exhibitions for people of all interests, ages, and levels all within [...]
Festival draws on unsung creative practice: Now in its second year, Vancouver Drawn celebrates drawing as an art form in its own right
From spelling bees to the Academy Awards, nothing showcases talent like a good old-fashioned competition. Now, the humble art of drawing is set to take its place in the spotlight as a national juried exhibition of the art form is unveiled this week. The Drawing Room is a new addition to Vancouver Drawn, a regional drawing festival now [...]
