Kimberley's Kaleidoscope Festival returns this fall, with five days of diverse programming running from September 11 to 15.
"Kaleidoscope Arts Festival is a community-based arts festival for people of all ages," said Chantel Delaney, one of the coordinators of the event. "It is a five-day celebration of music, live performances and workshops with artists from all walks of life.
"The festival is diverse and inclusive. This year, there are more workshops than ever before and they are very inexpensive -- the goal is to create financially accessible opportunities for people to try a new medium and learn something new. The festival is centred around the Kaleidoscope exhibit in Centre 64's gallery, which features a lot of local artists."
Delaney and Nicole Skokan are teaming up once again to coordinate the event, this being their third consecutive year. They are joined by the same team of committee teams as last year and Delaney said they're blessed to have their dedication for an event such as this. The committee includes Carol Fergus, Lynn Arnold, Kathy Clarke, Sonya Parker, Helen Robertson and Linda Douglas.
Last year they decided to condense the formally eight-day festival into a five day event, and they're sticking with that this year.
It seems to be just right and we can pack a lot into that timeframe," Delany said. "Every year brings new lessons. This year the committee decided to add a lot more workshops. They were so popular and sold out fast last year so there is clearly an appetite for them. The festival kicks off with Workshop Wednesday on September 11th where there are 5 different workshops happening. We have workshops for kids and teens on Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th."
Some of the new workshops this year include Japanese calligraphy, a Ukelele workshop for adults, Dreamcatcher Making, Creative Journaling, Animal Mask making and a painting workshop geared towards kids and teens.
The festival will also include the Palette Pleaser: a food and beverage competition among local bars and restaurants, who will all have special Kaleidoscope Festival feature items on their menus for the week of the festival.
A team of judges will determine the best menu item, with the winning business receiving a $500 gift certificate to Save-On-Foods. Last year saw Hourglass win with a signature cocktail.
Delaney said after last year's festival the committee gathered to share ideas for this year. They met again in January to start laying out the framework and booking the artists.
This year will be a "great blend of new programs and old favourites," according to Delaney. Take Four will be back for another Jazz Night on Friday, Sept. 19, featuring the awards presentation for the artists who had work featured in the Centre 64 gallery that month.
"We're offering some of the same workshops as last year that were very popular like One-Line Drawing with Rico," Delaney said. "We are absolutely thrilled to welcome back Shayna Jones for Grandmama Speak on Thursday. September 12th. She performed to a sell-out crowd in 2022 and it was an incredibly moving performance of African folklore storytelling using spoken word, dance, music and song. It was the crowd favourite that year so we were all keen to do it again.
"We are also bringing back Carly's Angels, the drag group from Calgary. They have sold out every year."
Tickets are on sale now at centre64.com and can be purchased in-person at Centre 64.
