There’s a rich art scene in Revelstoke bubbling behind our image as an outdoor adventure epi-centre and a new festival for Revelstoke aims to highlight that.
The arts festival Luna is anticipated to be a two-week event from September 30 to October 15. Revelstoke Performing Arts Centre’s Miriam Manley and the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre’s Victoria Strange are the masterminds behind it.
Attempts to create an event in the fall here, most recently by the way of the Axis Mundi music festival, have fizzled, but organizers believe this one will be different.
“I know we have a great outdoors reputation, we also have a great cultural side too, and an event like this can really put us on the map a bit more,” Strange said.
Luna will be a type of art walk, modelled after similar successful festivals such as Nocturne in Halifax, Nuit Blanche in Toronto, and more locally the Castlegar Sculpture Walk.
“It’s a really exciting way to engage people who maybe don’t go to art galleries,” Strange said. “They’re not necessarily involved in the arts and it’s a nice way for them to experience art, because it’s right there for them.”
The festival will come alive on September 30, with the main event from 6 p.m. to midnight. Participants will use a map to see all the installations and the event will be enhanced with music, food, performances, and business events.
Installations will be eye catching and potentially interactive, possibly displayed in shop windows, alleyways and unexpected places.
Revelstoke City Council, on the recommendation of the Revelstoke Tourism Infrastructure Advisory Committee, at the Dec. 20 meeting approved a contribution of $20,000 from the Resort Municipality Initiative.
The festival is anticipated to cost about $35,000 and the Revelstoke Arts Council is also applying to the Revelstoke Accommodation Association and the Columbia Basin Trust for the remaining amounts.
Luna will showcase 25 local artists, who will each receive $500 stipend. Five high-profile artists from outside of town will also be sought. A call out for artists will happen in the spring and a panel will select the successful applicants.
In recent years, bad attendance to events such as Ember Music Festival and Axis Mundi has been attributed to bad weather. Luna will not be as dependent on weather conditions.
“This kind of festival can happen in any kind of weather,” Strange said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be an event that you sit around outside in the rain.”
The city’s director of community economic development Alan Mason said the Tourism Infrastructure Advisory Committee liked the idea of Luna as it is small scale and answers the need for something in the fall.
“There’s not a lot of upfront money; the chances of being able to sustain it year after year are a lot better,” Mason said. “Going small is the way to go.”
“To have it in the shoulder season is always attractive for the hotels. Summer and winter they’re pretty busy so something scheduled for around September and October is good.”
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