Tag Archives: Festival

Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival Preview for Vue Weekly

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I returned to my musical roots again this week when I previewed the Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival for Vue Weekly.

The annual Heart of the City Music and Arts Festival will take over Giovanni Caboto Park again this Saturday and Sunday as it highlights inner city artists for the 14th year in a row.

Charity Slobod, an organizing board member for the festival, has helped run the event for six years, and she says its primary goal is always the same.

“The main focus, and the most important point, is really giving a platform and helping inspire inner city musicians, artists, slam poets—you name it,” Slobod says. “If you sing it, you can play it, you can be on our stage.” Read more

Goodluck Jonathan Heart of the City 2010I played with a high school rock band (Goodluck Jonathan) at the festival in 2010, so it’s great to hear that it is still growing and supporting artists in Edmonton’s core.

NorthwestFest Nonfiction Film Festival Preview for Vue Weekly

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Photo by Michael di Benedetto

I previewed Edmonton’s NorthwestFest for Vue Weekly today. The value-added experiences on the festival’s schedule feel like the beginning of something special.

This may only be the second year NorthwestFest is sporting its new name, but as Canada’s longest running nonfiction film festival, its history goes back decades.

Formerly the Global Visions Film Festival, the new moniker NorthwestFest International Documentary and Media Arts Festival has far more heft, as does the festival itself. What was once a three-day event is now a 10-day smorgasbord of variety designed to entice a wider audience, festival director Guy Lavallee says.

“We realized that to really have more of an international festival flavour, you need to be more than three days long,” he says. Read more

The fest opens tonight, and with live podcasts recordings and interactive VR films planned in addition to the traditional films, it should be a lot of fun. You can check the schedule, snag tickets, bundles, and passes, and review award nominations on NorthwestFest website.

Edmonton Resilience Festival 2017 Preview for Vue Weekly

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Photo by Paula Gerein

In a preview for Vue Weekly, I had the chance to speak to Laura Ward, the director of the incredibly varied Edmonton Resiliency Festival.

Saturday’s third annual Edmonton Resilience Festival explores the many facets of sustainable living. Held at Waldorf Independent School, it is timed to coincide with the change of seasons in Edmonton and Earth Day. Read more

I’d never heard of this one-day, workshop-based festival before, but it’s brimming with opportunities to learn about living in a sustainably fulfilling way, and the workshops are ticketed individually. Check out the schedule and more info at the Edmonton Resiliency Festival website.