A beautiful weekend awaits the beginning of the 28th Annual Street Performers Festival in Edmonton.
The 10-day event, which takes place from July 6th to the 15th, will host 1,500 outdoor performances by approximately 40 artists from all over the world.
“We’ve got so many great artists coming; artists from Australia, New Zealand, States, of course across Canada and some places in Europe as well,” says Artistic Producer Shelley Switzer, adding that for the first time this year they also have artists from Mexico and Ireland.
“There are some really fantastic choices, a lot of new acts as well.”
Whether they blow fire, mystify the crowd, or are balancing and juggling, there’s always some act that produces a smile from the audience.
“This festival is built for everybody, you can come down and you don’t need a ticket to come down to the square,” Switzer says.
“It’s the last democratic art form so you the audience member just gets to choose the value at the end of the performances.”
Switzer says that some artists will make the effort to come to Edmonton’s festival, even if they no longer work on the streets.
“Our festival, Edmonton’s festival, has this incredible reputation, awesome audiences that are so generous to the artists.”
The weather is expected to hold up for at least the weekend, but Scheduler Paul Bezaire is ready if the rain does come throughout the week and things have to change.
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“It really is on the fly and like I said we make the dream schedule in advance and if it all works out great, then we don’t have to deviate from that.”
He says each of the performers gets 45 minutes and if there are big enough crowds he will schedule more performers and shows.
“I love to see the crowds out; I love to throw performers extra shows because they love the crowds here.”
The street Performers Festival runs from 11:30am to 11pm each night, until Sunday the 15th when the final show is at 3:30pm.
For more information check out http://www.edmontonstreetfest.com
With files from Shane Jones.
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