Login / RegisterTickets on sale for 35th annual Vancouver International Children's Festival
It was touch and go last year for the Vancouver International Children’s Festival: grant cutbacks, plus a cost-saving change of locale to Granville Island that seemed to throw off the ticket-buying public, had organizers warning that the festival might not survive.
All the dire warnings did not, thankfully pan out, as tickets go on sale today for the 35th annual VICF, which will take place May 29 to June 3 on Granville Island, with a focus on storytelling.
This year features 15 shows by performing artists from Taiwan, Italy, the U.K., the U.S., and Canada, in eight venues. Highlights include Taiwanese puppetry company The Puppet & Its Double Theater, in an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince; children’s entertainer and author of Pete the Cat, Eric Litwin, in a lively show all about his famed feline character; the Senegalese rhythms of singer and percussionist Elage Diouf; and the North American premiere of The Itch of The Golden Nit, a 30-minute animation created for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad by the Tate Modern with Aardman Animation and more than 34,000 U.K. schoolchildren.
Commissioned works this year include Kutz & Dawgs, by Miscellaneous Productions, a hip-hop musical inspired by Romeo and Juliet, created by a socially diverse cast; Little Red and The Sea Wolf, by Ferry Tale Theatre, in an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood set on the Aquabus; and Paper-House Storeys in which artist Vjeko Sager will be assisting kids of all ages in creating scale-model paper houses to add to a VICF paper village.
In addition to the ticketed shows, the festival will have one free stage and hands-on arts activities such as face painting, sock-puppet workshops; circus skills; toddler play areas; claymation workshops, accessible with any show ticket or a $6 Activity Zone hand stamp.
For a full schedule of shows and tickets, visit www.childrensfestival.ca.
