The sixth annual Illuminate arts festival hosted by the Amplify youth committee returns Saturday, July 22 with a few changes. This year the youth-driven festival will shift location from Kingswood Park to St. Albert Place. And instead of an all-day and evening event, festivities will only run from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
“We wanted to improve attendance. We found it dropped off after a certain time in the evening and we didn’t want our performers to play to a limited audience,” said Kathleen Bell. “We hope that by changing locations, passers-by will stop and view the art. And the setting on the Sturgeon River is very beautiful."
Spanning many art forms, the free festival features an acoustic stage, a visual art battle, chalk art, a photo exhibit, dog painting, a paint-by-number community art project, drop-in square dancing and workshops. Many of the young artists taking part in the festival are from St. Albert and have polished their skills at other local events.
Bell said an acoustic stage representing virtually every form of popular music will be set along the river, with 13 musicians booked to perform. Several of the artists include Amy Polczer (rock’n roll), Savannah Hill (R&B), Jaimi Rempel (country-folk), Cyra (R&B), Revera (acoustic heavy grunge), Jake Souch (folk-blues) and Ph 15 (mixed covers).
“Bring your lawn chair and snack and enjoy the music and the view,” Bell said.
As for the art battle, 11 visual artists will compete in a Round Robin event for a $100 gift card while chalk art will appear on sidewalks surrounding St. Albert Place Plaza. Anyone walking along the St. Albert Place Trail by the river criss-crossing towards Lions Park can enjoy the traditional youth represented photo exhibit.
New this year is the paint-by-numbers community art project. Bell said Paul Kane High student Doria Tsybukova has taken two pieces of art and through a computer program has transformed them into paint-by-number canvases.
“It’s like puzzle pieces," Bell said. "We are asking people to pick a numbered piece and find the paint to paint that number. One of the pieces of art is a colourful jellyfish. The other is a calming basket of strawberries.”
Another new project involving man’s best friend is dog painting. Owners are asked to drop tiny paper canvasses in a Ziploc bag. Owners then select the colours they like and put them in the plastic bags. The bags are placed on the ground and dogs walk on it, pushing the paint around.
“The owner can take everything home in the bag and pull it out and air-dry it,” Bell said.
Square dancing, an event suggested by one of the youth on Amplify committee, is possibly the biggest surprise of the festival.
“Everything old is new again,” Bell said. “We’ll have dance instructor on site. We’re not taking pre-registrations. If you happen to walk by, we encourage you to join in. It’s going to be open classes and I’m really excited about it. We were looking for ways to integrate dance and this is a great way to do it.”
For anyone preferring the indoors, St. Albert’s Place Multicrafts Studio is hosting a soap-making workshop using a melt technique. The process for the youth-only workshop includes melting, colourizing, swirling a design and adding fragrance.
“We’re bringing experience from the past and combining it with new ideas. We have strong showings from a variety of people and we’re bringing lots of new energy to the festival.”
