It’s still three months away, but the momentum for the Squamish Wind Festival is gaining strength.
The festival will meld together arts, sports, music and creativity in a celebration of everything Squamish has to offer from July 25 to 27.
The Squamish Arts Council teamed up with the Squamish Yacht Club to create the inaugural event. The partners then reached out the community for ways to build on the theme of wind and water.
“Wind instruments and brass bands, pirate actors roaming town, wind crafts for kids, kite flying, buskers, workshops and demos,” said festival coordinator Michelle Neilson. “If you build it, they will come. This expression rings true for us because as our ideas take shape the word gets out and more people are coming to the table with ideas on how they can participate.”
On the water, the Canadian Outriggers Association (CORA) will stage a practice race during the weekend in advance of the Canadian National Championships event in Squamish in August. There will also be paddleboard races, kiteboarding activities and plenty of other sports-centric things to do.
The festival coincides with the yacht club’s Squamish Open Annual Regatta, which will see three days’ worth of sailboat racing in Howe Sound.
Arts also have a huge role during the weekend, Neilson said.
“We have a local artist group called Visuals creating new works of art inspired by wind and water,” she said. “Sculptors, painters, artisans are all pulling together to create new works of art. Serving as the artistic anchor for the festival, this art exhibition will be on display at the SAC building next to the festival stage.”
Opening night of the festival will see a free concert from 5 to 10 p.m. at Pavilion Park in downtown Squamish. There will be a kids’ craft zone, beer gardens and the night will be headlined by Vancouver-based Brazilian funk band, The Boom Booms. A variety of different music genres will hit the stage during the concert.
The festival got a boost recently when it received $2,000 from both the District of Squamish and CIBC.
“It’s nice to see contributions from the community,” Neilson said. “Raising money like this allows us to have a bigger party.”
The festival is on the lookout for buskers of any and all types to do their thing during the event. Neilson said the partnership with the Squamish Farmers Market helped spearhead the idea.
“The big picture for Squamish is downtown revitalization,” she said. “We want to bring energy to downtown and I think buskers is one of the most effective ways to do that. The farmers market expressed interest and we want to increase buskers overall in Squamish. We’re going to create a database with this festival and get as many talented people as we can involved with this weekend.”
Neilson encouraged anyone and everyone with some sort of talent and interest in busking to contact the Squamish Wind organizing group at [email protected] to be entered into the database.
The festival is also seeking local businesses that have an emphasis on water and wind activites to participate in the festival’s ‘Wind Market.’
For more information on the event, visit the festival on Facebook at “Squamish Wind Festival.”
