As Canada's longest-running children's festival, the Labrador Creative Arts Festival brings together students of Labrador communities and artists from around the world for a week of original student-produced plays, workshops and fun.
At the beginning of the school year, the teachers are informed of the theme for that fall's Arts Fest, as it's affectionately known. The students then get together and brainstorm, coming up with a script for an original play that they then cast and produce. In November they travel from their communities and gather in Happy Valley-Goose Bay to perform their play for their peers and the community at large.
In order to make this Arts Fest a great learning experience, artists from many different disciplines are invited to Happy Valley-Goose Bay to give workshops to the participants. Since only a limited number of students can travel to the Fest, artists are dispatched to the schools throughout Labrador as well as to local institutions such as a day care center, community college, prison,etc. This ensures that the Fest is a true Community event and has an impact on thousands each year.
The community, in turn, opens its homes to billet the hundred or so students and dozens of artists who are here for a week or more.
At any given time during the Fest you can find young people learning painting techniques, creating masks, learning about movement and dance, mounting a puppet show or having their play positively critiqued to make it the best that it can be.
UPDATE
The 2009 Labrador Creative Arts Festival was to run from November 18-24 inclusive. Unfortunately, the H1N1 Virus reared its ugly head causing the Department of Education to cancel all student travel and as you all know, without student performers there is no Festival.
Rather than cancel completely, the Fest was rescheduled and now takes place starting February 24, 2010.
Still, having the Fest at this time of the year meant that we were competing with many things, not the least of which was the regional High School Drama Festival. In an attempt to be fair to everyone we decided to run the two Festivals consecutively. So, for this one time only, the 34th Labrador Creative Arts Festival will take place on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday followed immediately by the Regional High School Drama Festival on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The visiting artists will be here for both, providing the students who come out for the Drama Fest an opportunity that they might not have otherwise.
Go to What's New for this year's LCAF schedule and join us at the O'Brien Arts Centre for the first Creative Arts Fest in our brand new theatre.
