2022 Lineup

Set in a garbage enclosure behind the Arts Barns, Dig incorporates found and organic materials from the Reuse Centre, back alleys, the River Valley, and an abandoned beaver dam; telling tales of the climate crisis and the time we are living in, reflected through trash.

Viewers are invited to contribute objects to the mound, or take away from it (nothing too gross please). Breanna will be using these materials to create a zine which will be available in a mini library made out of a microwave.

Designer and model-builder Skye Grinde presents three tiny moments – stories, fragments, memories – built to scale and placed in familiar spaces throughout Old Strathcona. Find all three and listen to their corresponding audio piece during the Festival.

Centered around technology, looping and real-time manipulation, 003_playback is a participatory movement exploration presented through a web-coded, live-streaming platform. Throughout the work, audience members vote to decide the sound, lighting and how the movement will be altered each round. The performers then respond to these real-time choices made by the online participants, via visual playback.

Gym Class Queer-roes centers around a fictional queer gym and the people who go there. This piece asks us to see the value in queer spaces, the relationship between the body and being queer, and wanting to connect and be less lonely.

Perfect Strangers is a site-responsive micro-performance which explores themes of intimacy, human connection, and friendship. Audience members who have never met are paired up and embark on a walking journey through the neighbourhood. The pairs are guided through a series of questions, games, and prompts which become increasingly intimate.

We’ve waited all winter for the time to be right to be taken along, so come on down Saturday July 9 at the Backstage Theatre. A little country, a little gay, and a whole lot prairie, the Hoedown is what happens when you pack an art party with a whole lot of ‘Berta. Wear your tightest wranglers and pack some yeehaw. You don’t wanna miss this one, bestie.

Join our crew of gifted poets and prominent thinkers for a Spoken Word Showcase centred around Femme, Queer, and BIPOC voices. This conversation will involve views, feelings, emotions and learnings surrounding the changes and trajectories unfolding around us and through us in today’s ‘new normal’.

BASK is a durational projection mapping installation featuring different visual perspectives of queerness. Atmospheric visuals create a stage where audience members are invited to step inside, play, and bask in their own intersecting identities of queerness.