Several artists with Williams Lake and area connections will be among the workshop leaders and artists participating at ArtsWells Festival of All Things Art this BC Day long weekend.
Williams Lake author Ann Walsh will be there with her one-hour Once Upon a Time interdisciplinary talk for ages eight to adult. She will also be offering a one-hour introduction to spoken word poetry for children ages six to 15 called Shout It Out.
This workshop will involve games, improv and the creation of a group poem, with no writing, no pressure, just fun, Walsh says.
Local historians Neil Vant and Mary Forbes will each be offering guided historical tours and talks around Wells. Forbes encourages people to dress in “olden days regalia” for their walk, and says there will be prizes.
Local Martin Comtois will be there with his astrology readings.
Cindy Charleyboy will be there to talk about Working with Dreams to create art, stories, songs, music, theatre and ceremony.
Angela Clark and Yael Wand will be there offering yoga sessions in the school field to start your day.
ArtsWells is a program of Island Mountain Arts and runs today through Monday in Wells just down the road from historic Barkerville where some of the activities will also take place.
More than 20 different workshops will be offered featuring presenters from around the province and further afield on skills such as lyric writing, clowning; the ins and outs of booking shows and tours in Canada with Spherical productions president, Joey Balducchi; health and wellness workshops; vocal improvisation; various forms of dance including Ukrainian, swing, belly, and pole dancing; drumming; glass blowing; managing events and artists; hatha and laughter yoga; politics in music; wood carving; science of spiritual awareness; or watch a new mural being painted at the Wells Community Hockey Rink.
And of course there will be all that music — more than 100 musical performances on 12 stages featuring folk, hip-hop, electronic, world, pop, roots, jazz, country and funk stylings.
The play bill includes some entertainers from or with connections to the lakecity including Brent Morton with his one-man Drum and Bell Tower band.
Former lakecity resident and now Vancouver-based multi-instrumentalist Brandon Hoffman will be performing with singer-songwriter Tanya Gallagher as Lily of the Valley.
Hoffman will also be playing with Miami Device, the West Coast’s Afro-beat machine that borrows members from Five Alarm Funk, Portage and Main, and Rude City Riot.
Singer-songwriter Sam Tudor, formerly od lakecity and now of Vancouver will also be there.
There will be bands and artists visiting from all across Canada including Nova Scotia and the Yukon Territories, and as far away as Australia, the United Kingdom and even Siberia.
Some of those travelling the farthest include Tanya Tagaq from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut and the Bindiniband from Toronto.
Many more bands and individuals will be there such as the bands such as Fish and Bird from Victoria; High Society, the Myrtle Family, and Red Haven from Vancouver; Gurpreet Chana from Toronto; Michael Dunn from Edmonton; Smoke n’ Bones from Saint John, NB.
There will be screenings of independent films as well as local theatre productions; the 14th international One Minute Play Festival and more.
Cool-mestizo-reggae band Los Rastrillos from Mexico will wrap up the festival with an appreciation party at the Wells community hall on Monday, Aug. 4.
For the complete line-up check out the ArtsWells website at www.artswells.com
In Williams Lake advance tickets are available at Dollar Dollar.
Children under age 12 get in free.
