Mike Redfern
The Kimberley Kaleidoscope arts festival is over for another year and, during the coming weeks, festival organizers will be mentally reviewing the ups and downs of putting on a summer arts festival in this small community before they come together in September to make decisions about the future of Kimberley Kaleidoscope.
There certainly were some significant successes during this past festival week, as well as one or two disappointments, like cancelled workshops. First Saturday’s East Coast Kitchen Party with Cod Gone Wild opened the festival on August 5 and was certainly a major success. The Centre 64 outdoor concert area was packed to capacity, everyone enjoying the party atmosphere, and the donations and bar receipts covered the costs, always an important consideration for a grant-reliant organization.
Tuesday’s DaVINci paint night in Studio 64 with artist Lori Joe was another successful event, as have been its several predecessors during the year since it was first introduced two festivals ago. It is always fully subscribed and participants have fun while they learn how to paint a picture which they then take home with them.
Friday night’s Arts on the Edge gala reception at Centre 64 was one of the best in the 13 year history of the event. It was very well attended and included several new activities that attendees obviously enjoyed. These included a live auction of paintings executed by artists participating in the July 2 art &garden tour, a tap dance performance by Kootenay Dance Academy graduate, Maggie Gilbert, and music by a youthful jazz quartet led by Drew Lyall. In addition, over $2400 in prizes was awarded to the artists of 16 winning artworks in the exhibition, which featured 98 works by emerging and established artists, many of them highly original in conception, composition, and use of materials.
The festival ended on a high note Saturday night with a performance in the Centre 64 theatre before a packed house by the Kasandra Flamenco Ensemble from Vancouver. The powerful, dramatic dancing of Kasandra La China was quite breathtaking and the intricate fingering of guitarist Gareth Owen showed us why he is considered one of the world’s top flamenco guitarists. The ensemble followed up their performance with a workshop for the Kootenay Dance Academy on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, they missed their flight home that afternoon and had to spend an unlooked-for additional night in Kimberley before flying home Monday morning. Not everything runs smoothly, no matter how well planned an event is!
This was the fourth Kimberley Kaleidoscope arts festival, held each year since 2014 following the first Saturday of August. It competes for attention with both the Kaslo Jazz Fest and Shambhala, just one of the factors Kimberley Arts Council has to consider in deciding whether the months of planning, grant-writing, and organizing are justified by the attendance. It’s to be hoped that the festival can build on its successes and continue for years to come.