Canada Day this year is going to be one of the biggest parties Powell River has ever seen. Three major events all planned for the same day will ensure that the city is hopping from dawn to dusk.
International Choral Kathaumixw, a Coast Salish word that means “a gathering together of different peoples,” and one of North America’s longest running international choral festivals, brings singers to Powell River from around the world.
Paul Cummings, who has been involved with Kathaumixw since it began in 1984, is artistic director for this year’s festival.
“We have people coming from all over the world just to soak it up,” said Cummings, who added that every festival he sees colleagues from around Canada coming to see how Kathaumixw has been put together.
The festival kicks off July 1 and runs for five days. Signs advertising the upcoming festival have already started popping up and buzz for the event is building.
This year the opening night of Kathaumixw coincides with Canada Day and also the day the BC Bike Race will be in town. Cummings said that organizers from all the events have sat down to hash out how all three events can happen on the same day.
The bike race is going to be in the morning, then in the afternoon the Canada Day celebrations will happen and then in the evening will be the opening of the choral festival.
“I don’t know if there’s ever been a bigger day in this town with so many out of town people coming,” he added.
Currently, groups from as far as Uganda, New Zealand and Russia have applied to participate, but the list is not finalized until just before the festival kicks off.
Cummings said that at this point he has groups that are making weekly contact with him about the festival. “We try to keep the list as open as long as we can.”
The ideal number of choirs for the festival is 26 or 27 groups, but it all depends on the size of the choir.
“We keep an eye on it,” he said, adding that organizers have a pretty good idea about capacity for home-stay families, in hotels and the size of performance venues.
The festival’s 18 concerts, from opening to closing ceremonies, will happen at four Powell River venues: Max Cameron Theatre, Evergreen Theatre, James Hall at Powell River Academy of Music and the Great Hall, also known as Hap Parker Arena.
“Once we get it set up, especially for the evening performances, you forget you’re in an arena,” he said.
Cummings said that it is his job to find the balance between different countries, and adult and youth choirs.
Concerts run in the afternoons at the venues and include a minimum of three groups performing at each concert. Mornings are reserved for the competitions.
This year the festival is reintroducing promenade or outdoor concerts.
“In past years we’ve had them in all different locations, but this year we’re doing them in one location at Spirit Square at the end of the wharf down by the ferry,” he said. “It’s absolutely ideal.”
Cummings believes out-of-town groups will be impressed at being able to perform outdoors in that level of beauty. “It’s gorgeous.”
Most of the choirs from out of town will compete in the festival’s competitions to see which ones will go to a final performance Friday night to determine the festival’s “Choir of the World” and win Craig Galligos’ totem pole carved specially for the festival winner.
“It’s the best of the best,” he said. “It gives people a really good idea of how tight the competition is.”
