Arts and Sounds in the Park returns
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
The second annual Arts and Sounds in the Park Festival, created and hosted by the Strathmore Regional Arts Collective (SRAC), is returning later this month. Thanks to a grant from Alberta Culture Days and other local support, this year’s event will be a two-day festival, beginning with a family-friendly concert on Sept. 26.
The concert will begin at 6 p.m., at Kinsmen Park, and there will be performances by The Dearhearts and Jenn Beaupre. There will also be toonie hotdogs, snacks and free hot chocolate and coffee available.
The following day, Sept. 27 is when the festival really kicks off, starting at 11 a.m. and also at Kinsmen Park. It will be a full day of events and fun for the whole family. There will be a children’s craft centre, free popcorn, a magician/balloon twister, face painting and a glitter tattoo artist and numerous tents featuring artists.
Also during the festival there will be a variety of performers keeping people entertained at the amphitheatre. SRAC is also very hopeful they will have the opportunity to feature native dancers on Saturday.
“The biggest piece we need is we need artists and performers, performers especially. We have quite a few commitments from artists but we really need performers to want to come and show their stuff,” said SRAC Chair Brandy Hebbes.
“Music, dance, theatre, anything … it doesn’t have to be singers, it can be individuals, it can be groups.”
Applications to sign up as a performer can be found at www.strathmorerac.com, and the entry deadline is Sept. 15.
Another thing the group is looking for are people who offer arts training to youth and adults. Last year there were a lot of parents asking where their kids could take various art lessons.
“It’s not just artists per se, we’re also looking for people that offer any kind of programming,” said Hebbes.
The plan is to have a sign up centre; that way as long as organizations or individuals have given contact information and an outline of what they offer it can be listed for people interested.
The art walk will not be returning this year, but in its place the Wheatland Society of Arts (WSA) will host an art show for those who do not have enough work to rent an entire booth.
They will also facilitate community canvases for the public to paint on in the gazebo.
“Two of them will be totally blank for the brave hearts that can paint on there, but for some of them that’s too intimidating so two of them we’re going to have big, elaborate scenes all drawn out and started,” said Hebbes.
The WSA will be floating around the gazebo offering help to those who need it, and there will be latex gloves and bog shirts to wear over clothes for anyone who paints. The paint used will be acrylic. Brava Duo, a piano and violin duo, will be playing throughout the day at the gazebo as well.