Mark calendars for summer festival season in Canmore area
by Shari Bishop Bowes
May marks the beginning of festival season in the Canadian Rockies, with most weekends jam-packed with fun family activities throughout the summer months. Planning a visit to Canmore and Banff over the summer months? We're highlighting the most popular festival events from the May long weekend through Labour Day in September to help in planning your visit.
Banff Jazz Festival
May 15 to June 12
Banff's jazz scene got started in 1974 when jazz legends Oscar Peterson and Phil Nimmons came to The Banff Centre to put their ideas on jazz education into practise.
Now in its 31st year, the Banff jazz program is highlighted by a month dedicated to all things jazz in the mountains - the Banff Jazz Festival. Musicians from around the world converge in Banff to explore a common passion for creative music, resulting in everything from small informal jazz sessions at informal and intimate venue, The Club, to noon hour jazz concerts to evening concerts featuring big name performers.
Saturday Night Jazz is held on Saturdays from May 15 through June 12, and features classic and new jazz orchestra works led by Canadian jazz master Hugh Fraser, Canadian-born trumpet legend Kenny Wheeler, and such big name jazzers as Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, James Genus, Clarence Penn, Mike Murley, Brad Turner, George Lewis, Jason Moran, Sam Rivers, Dylan van de Schyff, Andre Lachance and Mark Feldman.
For more information on schedules, tickets and performance venues see
www.banffcentre.ca
There's a lot of fun and make believe, including dress-up time for this young wizard at the Canmore Children's Festival.
Canmore Children's Festival
May 21 & 22
Canmore's reputation as a family-friendly community has its most obvious ad delightful example in the Canmore Children's Festival, held each May on the 'Victoria Day' long weekend.
Now in its 5th year, this great family event has grown with even more performers and activities that span two action-packed days on the grounds of Canmore Collegiate High School.
Children from toddlers' ages through teens will find much to entertain and amuse, from organized games, crafts, workshops, storytelling, juggling, music and special staged performances.
The weekend kicks off with "Big Friday", which this year is geared towards "tweens, teens and their parental units," according to organizer Chris Burr. The evening will feature a pizza party, karaoke, theatre sports and live performances by Washboard Hank, the Line Up Maintenance Crew and Double Vision. Saturday is a full day for children and their parents, with something to do on every corner of the jam-packed site. Take in a clowning or stilt-walking workshop, watch Ukrainian dancers perform, enjoy children's theatre performances, spend some time in the Imagination Tent making some crazy crafts, or sit on the grass with a picnic while comic performers and musicians rove the site to entertain the crowds.
A special Saturday evening concert this year will feature Eric Nagla, whose humours antics and downhome music have entertained kids of all ages since 1978. Eric is master of many instruments, from the well known (banjo, mandolin, guitar and fiddle) to the not-so-well known (psaltery, musical saw, spoons and bodhran) to the truly bizarre (sewerphone and nose flute).
For more information on tickets, schedules and performers, check out
www.canmorechildrensfestival.com
Canmore's Arts Festival - artSPeak 2004
June 11 to 13
The shining mountains, blue skies and natural beauty have attracted artists of all kinds to the Canadian Rockies since Canmore and Banff's settlement over a century ago.
Canmore celebrates its artistic and cultural roots with its 2nd annual arts festival, artSPeak, over three days this June. Highlights of the event include live music and comedy both indoors and out, free exhibits and activities, workshops, author presentations, a gallery and artist studio tour and an art fair featuring the work of Alberta and B.C. artists.
Live performances include the Canmore Cabaret music revue, the Evening of Comedy and Drama, and Sunday Afternoon Classics. The Canmore Street Performers Festival is held concurrently with artSPeak, with roving entertainers on downtown Canmore streets all day Saturday and Sunday.
Visual art is the focus of the ArtWalk and ArtDrive, which showcase galleries and artists' studios both near downtown Canmore and a few minutes' drive on the outskirts of town. Don't miss the ArtFair, which features a selection of original art and handcrafts on display and for sale in the downtown area.
Workshops are a new addition this year, and include a children's theatre session, and a photography workshop for adults.
Several special presenters and performers are featured at this year's artSPeak. Steve Smith, whose crazy CBC Television show character "Red Green" is beloved by Canadians coast to coast, is scheduled to perform at the Evening of Comedy & Drama on Saturday, June 12.
Canadian author Michael Ignatieff will give a brief talk and book signing for his latest book, The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror. Along with this theme, there will also be an Alberta Foundation for the Arts touring exhibition on 9/11, as well as a special film screening on the subject of 9/11 at the Banff Television Foundation offices in Canmore.
For scheduling and ticket information closer to the event, check out
www.artspeakcanmore.com
Canmore's Canada Day Celebration
July 1
Canmore goes all out to celebrate our nation's birthday, with a day of first-rate festivities.
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As dusk falls on the Canmore Folk Festival, the crowd settles back for a long evening of superb music at the Stan Rogers Stage in Centennial Park.
The highlight of Canada Day in Canmore had to be the Canada Day Parade, which features a full hour of entertainment as marching bands, decorated floats, clowns and waving local dignitaries make their way down Main Street. Starting promptly at noon, the parade attracts hundreds of people to the downtown area, many arriving early to set up lawn chairs in prime viewing locations.
Centennial Park and the Stan Rogers Stage, a few minutes walk from downtown Canmore, offer a perfect location for a full afternoon of family fun, including children's games, live music and dancing, food booths and a special Canada Day cake cutting.
After a great day celebrating Canada's birthday, you won't want to miss the evening fireworks display. Enjoy a dinner at one of Canmore's fine restaurants - maybe outdoors on a patio - and be ready to catch the fireworks display at dusk.
Banff Summer Arts Festival
July 9 to August 14
Just one more reason to love Canada's oldest National Park comes in early July, with the start of the Banff Summer Arts Festival. Visitors and residents come together at a variety of venues in Banff - just 20 minutes' drive from Canmore - during a five week celebration of music, dance, opera, theatre, Aboriginal Arts, film screenings, exhibitions, and new media featuring artists from Canada and around the world.
With more than 60 arts events, from Mozart's immortal comic masterpiece, The Marriage Of Figaro, to a saucy Gilbert & Sullivan cabaret, from grand music master concerts with world renowned musicians to casual afternoon recitals, this dynamic summer festival proves that the Canadian Rockies inspire the very best in the arts.
Closer to event dates, check out www.banffcentre.ca for updates on performances, venues and tickets.
Canmore Folk Music Festival
July 30 to August 1
There's something special about listening to folk music masters from around the globe in the beautiful mountain setting of Canmore.
The Canmore Folk Music Festival is Alberta's longest running folk fest, celebrating 27 great years over the Heritage Day long weekend. There's a spectacular and diverse line-up of musical talent on the schedule for this summer's festival, with something to enjoy for the die-hard folkie through to the first-timer to the folk music scene.
Centennial Park and the Stan Rogers Stage, just a few blocks off Canmore's Main Street, comes alive with activity during Folk Festival. There's food and craft booths, a delicious and different food fair, and a climbing wall for kids who grow restless from sitting too long.
Canmore's folk festival is unique compared to much larger events in Canada in its offering of a relatively intimate setting, where the music, the performers - and the mountains - are up close and personal. Blankets and low-rider lawnchairs are inhabited by everyone from toddlers through to seniors, with a corner up close to the stage reserved for anyone who wants to get up and dance. Sunday and Monday evening concerts are the highlight of the festival, but the real surprises can be found in afternoon workshops and jam sessions held both days. Musicians of wildly varying styles come together to create sounds that have never before been heard - the reason many of these musicians love to return to Canmore year after year.
A taste of the lineup for this summer's event includes the Amos Garrett Acoustic Project; a Grammy award-winning Texas polka band called Brave Combo; the McDades of Alberta, who blend Celtic, World and Jazz influences; Ruthie Foster and Cyd Cassone, with powerful vocals and a funky mix of soul, gospel, blues and folk; D'Gary, one of Africa's most exciting acoustic guitar players; the highly danceable Paperboys of Vancouver, best known for their raging Celtic tunes; Garnet Rogers, Ontario's brilliant songwriter with a powerful baritone voice; and bluegrass virtuosos John Reichman and the Jaybirds.
For the full line-up closer to the event, see www.canmorefolkfestival.com
A little piper joins in with a marching band at the Canmore Highland Games.
Canmore Highland Games
September 5
The grand height of the mountains may be the only tip-off that you're not in Scotland come the Labour Day weekend in Canmore.
The lofty peaks form the perfect background for the Canmore Highland Games, held in Centennial Park, with hundreds of pipers, drummers and Highland dancers taking over the green fields in competition. A beefy field of competitors add some brawn to the event with the traditional heavy games competition, tossing the caber and other impossibly heavy objects surprisingly long distances. The day starts off with a pancake breakfast, fuelling spectators on site to see off the hearty competitors in the Hill Run competition. The expansive site offers a great selection of food and a beer garden, as well as merchant booths including those selling all things tartan, clan shields and genealogical information that just might help you link your ancestry to the McStays or the Frasers.
The highlight of the day has to be the Massed Bands, when all competitors in piping and drumming march together down the long field as their music fills the air and brings a tear to your eye.
The day winds up with the hugely popular evening Ceilidh, where the Celts let loose with lively entertainment and dancing in a monstrous tent erected for the occasion.
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