Mark May 16 on your family calendar so you don’t miss out on The Banff Centre’s third annual Children’s Festival.
This single-day celebration will feature shows and activities – many of which are free for all ages – designed to introduce children to contemporary art and encourage adults to rediscover creativity with their family.
Performances will include Toute ŕ Trac’s Alice in Wonderland; Shary Boyle and Christine Fellows’ Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home and Tom Flanagan’s KAPUT. Young audiences will love learning to dip and dive at circus school with Calgary’s Green Fools Theatre. The festival will also include a special screening of child-friendly Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival shorts, including Sharon Colman’s Academy Award-nominated Badgered.
“In addition to familiar favourites like face painting and bouncy castles, The Banff Centre Children’s Festival weaves elements of contemporary art into interactive shows and activities designed to engage children and inspire adults,” said Jen Mizuik, visual and digital art director at The Banff Centre. “It is a journey into the world of contemporary creativity, and you must be a child between the ages of 0-100 to enjoy the ride.”
This is the third year of the festival, with a larger emphasis on community inclusion towards the events and a grander scale of activities. “It really feels like this is the first time the entire Banff Centre is really coming on board and really investing and really throwing open their windows and doors of programming and finding their inner child and having some fun,” said Banff Centre associate director Casey Prescott.
“When you come up to The Banff Centre on May 16 you’re going to be able to experience a little bit of everything that happens up here because there is so much magic. We sometimes call ourselves the magic mountain and we really feel that on May 16 it’s all about the child’s imagination.”
Both Mizuik and Prescott were responsible for The Banff Centre’s Convergence Art and Technology Summit, and want to see the Children’s Festival follow in its progressive footsteps by offering as much programming as possible to visitors. “This year you’ll get the chance to see the events for technology, visual arts, theatre, dance and music, so it is truly an interdisciplinary program,” Mizuik said.
“One of the nice building blocks of this event is a lot of outreach is happening in the community,” Prescott added. “We’re working with the local Tim Hortons which has enabled a week of workshops and bringing in disadvantaged youth from Calgary and surrounding areas to engage in provocative and artistic activities designed by Shary Boyle and Christine Fellows, two artists that will be a part of the festival. Another exciting partnership will be with the Nature Explorers program at Banff Elementary School.”
Performances at The Banff Centre Children’s Festival include:
KAPUT
All ages, 10 a.m., Margaret Greenham Theatre, $5
The story of a clumsy Mr. Fixit who, despite his best efforts to perform the simplest of tasks, only manages to take one step forward and two steps back in a highly skilled, hilarious and poignant bit of silliness in physical theatre and circus. Presented by (www.strutnfret.com/artist-production/kaput) Tom Flanagan and Strut and Fret Production House.
Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home
Ages eight and older, noon, Rolston Recital Hall, $5
Join a mysterious and immersive journey in this hand-crafted spectacle which bravely explores distance and alienation, childhood and aging, imagination and resilience in the face of a changing, challenging landscape. Part ritual and part myth, Boyle and Fellows use sound, lyrics, image and light to tell stories that reconnect us with a sense of shared history and common humanity.
Alice in Wonderland
Ages six to 11,3 p.m., Eric Harvie Theatre, $5
Embark on a magical journey with Alice when she hides in her father’s study to avoid doing her homework, and discovers a curious looking rabbit, eater of novels, lurking there. Wanting to keep the rodent from devouring all the books, Alice chases the rabbit through his borough and discovers a wonderland beyond her wildest imaginings. This is an inventive twist on Lewis Carroll’s classic tale.
For information about The Banff Centre Children’s Festival, including updates on more free events, and to get your tickets, visit www.banffcentre.ca/events/listings/by-category/banff-childrens-festival
