A new festival in the Valley of Festivals is possibly on the horizon in Cumberland.
Targeted for the Labour Day Weekend of 2012, the proposed fringe festival would open with a parade and take place mostly on Dunsmuir Avenue.
“What we envision is four or five shows a day for three or four days,” Grant Shilling said this week. “We’re going to be following the Victoria Fringe Festival.
“It’s a natural for people who are partaking in the Victoria Fringe Festival to come to Cumberland afterwards. It gives them a circuit.”
Shilling is part of a six-person fringe committee that next meets Nov. 21 at 8:30 p.m. at the King George Hotel at 2723 Dunsmuir Ave.
Public attendance is encouraged.
“Our goal is to build on the success of what the arts have been providing for Cumberland. We have a lot of funky venues,” Shilling said, noting the Masonic Hall, the Waverley and the King George. “The wheel is definitely in motion. It would be a shot in the arm for Cumberland.”
There will be information tables Nov. 25 and 26 at the Stan Hagen Theatre at North Island college’s Courtenay campus for a performance by the Progressive Polygamist, Pick of the Fringe winner at the Vancouver festival.
According to the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals, Fringe events present a wide variety of alternative theatre. Canada has more Fringe Festivals per capita than any other country in the world, CAFF adds.
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
