BC festivals
Vancouver: Kids leave Vanier Park home
The kids are on the move. The Vancouver International Children’s Festival announced this week that its 34th edition next spring will, for the first time in the festival’s history, not take place in Vanier Park. Instead, all events will unfold on Granville Island. That’s a happy coincidence for brand-new artistic director Katharine Carol, who was [...]
Vancouver: Olio Festival’s gallery crawls offer art that’s music to the eye
To say that there’s a lot going on at this week’s Olio Festival is beyond an understatement. With events happening all across town featuring some of Vancouver’s best musicians, comedians, artists, and filmmakers, it’s going to be tough to catch everything the festival—which runs Thursday to Sunday (September 23 to 26)—has to offer. And while [...]
Vancouver/Whistler: Film festivals to keep you busy until Christmas
With autumn rains and early evenings upon us, there’s no better time to indulge in festival films that you might not otherwise have the chance to see. And with festival funding affected by either B.C. provincial arts cuts or the recession (or both), it’s also important to show your support for cinema from beyond Hollywood. [...]
Courtenay: KidsFest back again
Recreation and play is essential to the development of children. The Canadian Parks and Recreation Benefits Catalogue states that we learn physical motor skills and social skills through play and that we learn creativity and develop intellectual capacities and concepts through play, arts and cultural activities. Comox Valley KidsFest aims to provide plenty of play [...]
Vancouver festival to show 30 B.C. films
The Vancouver International Film Festival has released its showcase of Canadian film, including 30 titles made in British Columbia. VIFF opens Sept. 30 with Barney’s Version, the film based on the Mordecai Richler novel of the same name about a lovable curmudgeon played by Paul Giamatti. Score: A Hockey Musical also gets the gala treatment along [...]
Celebrating a decade of techno-arts, New Forms Festival highlights city’s pioneering media artists
After a decade of promoting technology-inspired sights and sounds, Vancouver’s New Forms Festival plans to celebrate its 10th anniversary by highlighting some of the city’s pioneering media artists. The theme for this year’s eight-day event is Traversing Electronic Narratives. According to exhibition curator Malcolm Levy, the heading is all about telling stories through multi-discipline art [...]
Ready, set, Fringe! The Vancouver International Fringe Festival survives a wild funding ride
Ready. Set. Sit. Oh, and you may want to bring a cushion. The 2010 Vancouver International Fringe Festival kicks off this afternoon and, for 11 days, fans will flock to Granville Island and its environs to plant their bums, briefly. Fringe shows never last for much more than an hour and venues vary wildly, so [...]
The Vancouver Fringe Festival 2010
The Vancouver Fringe Festival takes over Granville Island (and selected locations beyond) from September 9th to the 19th. This year’s Fringe has plenty of variety and is one of the best bangs for your buck for live theatre in Vancouver. With over 600 performances of its 82 works over an 11 day run, the Fringe [...]
Only cowboys and country fairs can hope for festival gaming funds
New eligibility criteria for gaming grants should dash any hopes local arts festivals had for funding. The B.C. Liberals have halted the distribution of all gaming money going to arts groups that don’t focus directly on youth. But there was a small window of optimism about a remaining category called Fairs, Festivals and Museums. No [...]
Nelson: Arts and heritage festival slated for fall
A two-and-a-half week arts and heritage festival is in the works for Nelson this fall, to include a weekend of storytelling, plus concerts and the world premiere of an original Lucas Myers play. “We’re definitely still in the formative stage,” says organizer Richard Rowberry. “We’re looking for volunteers, participants, storytellers, and musicians to make it [...]
Donors help Vancouver International Improv Fest overcome financial hurdle
Organizers of the decade-old Vancouver International Improv Festival [1] have turned to friends and supporters to help bridge a gap in funding that threatened to derail the six-day series of performances and workshops. Kaitlin Fontana, the festival’s media and sponsorship director, said the small, non-profit theatre group had just started exploring its public-grant options in earnest when [...]
Victoria: First Peoples Festival returns
After a five-year hiatus, the First Peoples Festival is back, thanks to new $10,000 sponsorship by the City of Victoria. The event features performers and an artists’ market. Under tight timelines, organizers aim to keep the reincarnated festival “humble but memorable,” said Leslie McGarry of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre. Gone is the big salmon [...]
Victoria: Johnson Street Festival brings community unity
Johnson Street was packed with skateboarders, hula girls and shoppers as people flocked downtown to the first Lower Johnson Street Festival yesterday. The downtown thoroughfare was closed to traffic from Wharf Street to Broad Street to accommodate pedestrians, dogs, street-food vendors, sidewalk chalk artists and yoga practitioners. Local skateboarders had a captive audience as they [...]
New festival takes over Merritt Mountain grounds
The Merritt Mountain Music Festival had a long successful run, and while there may be no more country music headliners gracing the stages on the beautiful hills in Merritt another festival has laid claim to the area—on the complete opposite end of the genre spectrum. Electric Mountain Music Festival is the new festival taking over [...]
North Vancouver: Fancy footwork festival taps into dance form’s growing popularity, International tap dance artists shuffle into Vancouver
Tap dancers who have performed with Gregory Hines, in a Spike Lee movie and on So You Think You Can Dance will tap their heels and toes to dizzying syncopated rhythms at the 2010 Vancouver International Tap Dance Festival, Sept. 3 to 5. Sas Selfjord, executive director of the Vancouver Tap Dance Society, which presents [...]
