Every year, residents in Golden gather together to welcome the Snow King and Lady Spring back into the Valley at the annual MasqueParade.
The welcoming party takes quite a bit of preparation to work on all the details that make the event wonderful.
This year, all of the “wild and silly creatures” are the theme to show King and Spring, and a number of activities and groups are working hard on different projects all over town.
Each of the projects are kind of like beads on a necklace, explains Kicking Horse Culture director Bill Usher.
“At the MasqueParade, we’re telling a story. We’re telling a bedtime story that we’ve told now for the last 12 years. The bedtime story is the same thing. We’re welcoming Snow King and Lady Spring back to the Valley, and all the sild and silly people come out and welcome them back,” Usher said. “We’ve got the beginning of the story, and we’ve got the end of the story, and we’ve got all these things in the middle that change every year. They change because they come from people’s imagination in the community.”
Many different groups in the community are working on their own projects. Groups like the Scouts, the Amuse Troupe, home schoolers, families from the Blaeberry, the Early Years Centre, and so many more are working on projects to contribute to the wild and silly evening on February 16.
“Our goal is to engage with all of these groups and people, like play groups, families getting together with their children and doing things, school classes, and all of these people come and put their ideas together,” Usher said. “All those beads get strung on a necklace, and on that necklace we’ve got the beginning of the story, and we’ve got the end of the story, and we put all of those beads in the middle.”
Usher has a handful of ideas up his sleeves for this year. One aim of the MasqueParade has always been to blur the lines between the audience and participants. One of the ways people can do this is by dressing up and getting engaged in the action. Usher thinks maybe this year it is time for a onesie parade.
While King and Spring have been away, the video game Fortnite has been rising in popularity. The game has spread a number of dance routies all over the Internet that King and Spring have missed out on while they were away. To show them what they’ve been missing, the play house will be open on February 10 from 1 to 3 p.m. to show off your moves at the Civic Centre.
Later that day, people will be building a forest made from cardboard and other recycling objects from 3 to 5 p.m. Some of the forest will be displayed as the backdrop for King and Spring, and other tree builds will be mobile throughout the crowd.
This Sunday, February 3, kids are invited to make lanterns for the MasqueParade at the Civic Centre from 3 to 5 p.m.
Anyone who has any ideas or wants to participate in any way can e-mail snowking@kickinghorseculture.ca.
