Spent yesterday at the Latitudes Storytelling Festival in Kitchener ON. The festival occupies a corner of a larger multicultural festival in Victoria Park, which at times threatened to drown out the lower key nature of storytelling but I was glad to be there just because storytelling is really what the Six String Nation project is all about.
We managed to get the projector and sound set up going for the first presentation for a small but highly attentive group in the first tent, where fellow guest artist Michael Kelly Cavan brought Voyageur to life with a couple of Canadian classics, "Four Strong Winds" and "Hallelujah".
Had some nice conversations with people for a while on the bank of the nearby river after the performance and then made my way to the kids tent where cushions were strewn all about for the little ones. This presentation attracted a much bigger crowd of kids and adults and - as always with my presentations for children - there's a lot more interaction as I prompt kids for answers about Canadian facts and engage them in a Quiz at the end.
Michael was on standby again for a version of "Baby Beluga" and "Puff the Magic Dragon" but first one of the dads in the audience stepped up to play something. Turns out it was Rob Covens (pictured here with his daughters), a fellow alumni of CKLN Radio in Toronto from back in the 1980s!
Thanks to Carol McLeod, Marguerite, Julian, Matt and the volunteers at the festival.
Posted at 2:26 PM