In the near future, downtown North Battleford will welcome an event that shares similarities with at least two experiences I've had, one being at a medieval festival in Arizona and the other at a festival I walked through while living near Whyte Avenue in Edmonton.
Caught up in crowds, at both events, there was a fever and anticipation as if live television had somehow unfolded out of the screen and into our real lives, the lives of the crowds who had gathered to take in a delirious vaudeville act, not presented by a host such as Ed Sullivan, but instead presented by the performer as host and act all rolled into one.
At the medieval festival, I suddenly became a part of a crowd when some of us passing by were asked if "we liked fire?" Everyone stopped, obviously. I for one am pretty thrilled by fire. I guess, by everyone's reactions, I wasn't the only one. In Edmonton, I got caught up when a large crowd formed around a man boasting he was about to stand on top of a plank, on a giant red ball, while juggling construction tools and wearing a bright orange traffic cone on top of his head. The other performer climbed a ladder he set on fire to juggle on the top rungs, all while poking fun at kids in the crowd and getting them involved in the show. And, the kids loved it.
This is the idea behind live performance that escapes the constraints of a stage to become roaming and living entities existing of their own volition. When the Battlefords becomes host to our first International Street Performers Festival, July 25, 26 and 27, North Battleford Business Improvement District Executive Director Lisa McEachern said the festival will be an event without fences and without borders. It is a free event to which everyone can come and return at any time during the three days and can roam as freely as the performers.
Although the very first of its kind in Saskatchewan, the international festival has been an ongoing phenomenon in Edmonton for the last 30 years, also in Grand Prairie 14 years, and by the festival's track record we can assume it's an annual event for all the right reasons.
Edmonton International Artistic Producer Shelley Switzer was in the Battlefords earlier this year in preparation for our event, a continuation of this summer's street performers circuit.
"They're world travellers," said Switzer, when talking about the performers. "[But when they're here] the artists form to the community. They reflect the audience that is in front of them at the time."
Switzer explained she believes these type of events put heart into a community and pull together a full diversity of demographics, explaining how she met with city business owners, the organizing committee and attended a city council meeting.
"Some of them mystify, some of them electrify," said Switzer, adding she believes the right performers have been picked for the upcoming event.
Concerning the restriction free aspect of the festival, Switzer commented "this is about learning to drop your schedules."
There are no tickets sold and show times occur spontaneously as performers roam through the crowd to entertain children, adults and families, or are found by spectators as they amass into crowds around a spot of excitement.
"There is a hat passing aspect," said Switzer. If the crowd enjoys the show it's up to them to decide if they want to donate money to the performer and how much. Switzer advised, even though the event is free, patrons should consider bringing something along because there will be regional vendors providing food, drink and artisan wares along the street.
Speaking of food. If I know one thing that excites me, it's walking around with something tasty in my hand to appease my appetite, being outside with a little sunshine, some peers and now 'people watching' that's been upgraded to a professional fervour.
"As this is the first year of N.B. Street Fest, the goal is to get as many vendors and artisans to our food and artisan alley," says vendor organizer Kali Weber.
Weber said that being Saskatchewan's first International Street Festival, not only was artistry and creativity a part of the vision, but another main goal was to showcase "food and culture that is local to our province, and is grown from fresh, local [and regional] farmers and/or markets. Food and entertainment go hand in hand-culturally," wrote Weber.
According to Weber and other organizers, during the festival the downtown area will be especially showcased as the vibrant, positive and safe environment that locally trafficked urban areas have the potential of being, that also lends itself to economic stimulation. Not only is the festival planned for sheer enjoyment, but there is a strategic numbers game promoting local business and community, beneath the surface and researched by an ad hoc audience services group.
It's like the inner workings beneath the skin, the heart of the city that pumps lifeblood.
Switzer and McEachern have been corresponding for about a year and are involved in communications with local businesses and community members. McEachern explained there is a wealth of completed and ongoing research into downtown communities and the community as a whole, including signature events. She added she wants to bring the spirit of Edmonton, which has a reputation as Canada's festival city, into the downtown core, and has implemented strategies to quantitatively measure the economic effects for local business.
This will be done through audience services conducting surveys to gather data and since the event is sponsored by community businesses, organizers are looking for increases in sales and will provide this data back to the community.
"We're looking at this event to increase tourism," said McEachern.
Through this three-day event, organizers are looking not only for local participation, but are interested in people, from other communities, visiting, making the event a travel destination and staying in local accommodations or at regional campgrounds. Past events [like these] have been more successful than expected and at those events more people than anticipated attended, said McEachern.
"We're hoping to have around 3,500 people attend over the three days [because] everything that has been attempted [in the past] has been successful."
To show their appreciation organizers are hosting a gala event at the Dekker Centre to showcase festival sponsors. The gala will be held on the Thursday evening before the festival weekend starts and is described as being for adults and a more mature show put on by the performers.
"I think the jokes will be more adult oriented," said McEachern, adding the gala will be open for anyone interested in attending.
"We're very excited for the night," said Dekker Centre for the Performing Arts manager Moe Mcquinty and added he is thrilled to have something in the city that is supportive of the arts and of culture. When asked about hosting the gala, he said attendees will be well fed and will have enough to drink.
"They're probably the most important part of the event," said Sponsorship/Marketing and Communications chair Donnica Bernier, when talking about sponsors. By focusing on the potential of making the festival an annual happening, Bernier touts supporters as the backbone of providing a summer event people can look forward to every year. She went on to describe her vision of the festival as a destination point for travellers that have the opportunity to take in the event, as well as local lakes and other regional locales.
"The number one thing is the support of the community and the sponsors," said Bernier. "Plus the volunteers."
"We're looking for 85 to 100 volunteers," said volunteer chair/co-ordinator and event treasurer Janaye Lightfoot, adding the volunteer experience will be made enjoyable for anyone who has signed up or is considering signing up.
Festival organizers have set up six possible crew groups divided to best accommodate volunteers' interests, personalities and physical attributes. Lightfoot stated physical attributes will be considered when choosing volunteers for crews such as set up and take down. Crews will include site crew, street crew, information booth, a green team, artist assistants and possibly a kids' crew.
As with the sponsor gala, volunteers will be shown they are appreciated through a volunteer appreciation night.
"We want this festival, in the first year, to be fantastic," said Lightfoot and reminds parents there will be face painting, as well she hopes for enough interest to implement her desired kid's world; a special area designated to children.
"There are certainly going to be artists that are specific to kids," she said.
Inspired by the artistry and science of planning initiatives, I've signed up to volunteer, while an array of thoughts, concerning the advantages of cultural events, have been roaming about the inside of my head. I'm inspired by the concept of solidarity, a unity and mutual support within a group. Although individuality has become a huge focus of media in the last 10 years, used to sell us cars and everything else, to avoid a culture becoming atomized and reduced to small distinct units and to create further balance, bringing together demographics as needed.
New and nonrestrictive community events help to avoid a culture that some fear steers towards marginalization and isolation. The festival culture is like a Large Hadron Collider playing with the normality of atoms. It has the potential to create something new where once something new never existed.
By thinking outside of the box, the creative human spirit has time and again proven its capabilities as an inventive and imaginative factor. I suspect this spirit runs fierce through the veins and capillaries of the world-class performers who will be visiting this summer, and hopefully beyond.
I picture these performers as electrons floating amongst the potential crowds in downtown North Battleford, but unlike an unwanted free radical, they will be positive and bring with them an electricity to entertain adults and children alike.
Some ideas are balanced and well thought out. Some ancient philosophers, Pythagoras as an example, were often grand and imaginative thinkers as well as grounded and rational mathematicians. By analyzing this vein of thought, we find that celebration can also serve purpose.
Not only is it something to look forward to every summer, but it helps to create a better culture and a better world through discovery, diligence and forward momentum. It's just a thought, but a thought is where it always begins. Evidently, there are those brave enough to put those thoughts into action and for that I say thank you. You are the ones that make our communities, and our province, a better place.
