October 28, 2008
Publication title: Canadian Press NewsWire, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Vancouver
Writer: Unknown
Sarah McLachlan To Kick Off Olympic One Year Countdown Concert In February
VANCOUVER, B.C. — Olympic organizers in Vancouver may be trying to tighten their purse strings in the current topsy-turvy economic climate but cuts to an arts festival celebrating the 2010 Games aren’t on the program.
The line-up for next year’s Cultural Olympiad was announced Tuesday and will feature 400 performances over a seven-week period. “Culture is the second pillar of the Olympic movement and it plays a huge role in making the Olympics and Paralympics what they are,”said David Guscott, vice-president of celebrations for the Vancouver Olympic committee, known as Vanoc.
“At the heart of this is the Olympic movement’s belief that intercultural exchange is a step towards intercultural understanding and peace.”
Though Olympic organizers said just last week they’d be going through their budget and eliminating unnecessary spending to ward off any possible fallout from the world economic downturn, the Olympiad isn’t one of them.
“This is not a frill for Vanoc or for the Olympic movement,” said Burke Taylor, vice-president of culture and celebrations for the committee.
“Our commitment is still here and I don’t foresee a change at this time.”
As part of the Olympiad, Canadian songstress Sarah McLachlan will headline a kick-off concert on Feb. 12, 2009 for the one-year countdown party for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Other marquee acts will be Toronto’s Broken Social Scene and the Calgary-born duo Tegan and Sara performing on Feb. 6.
Tickets for those concerts will go on sale Nov. 1.
More than 100 projects will take place during the Olympiad and 85 per cent will be by Canadian acts, organizers said. Half of those come from B.C. International artists include the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra, Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company and Spanish flamenco star Maria Juncal. Organizers will also ask Canadians to contribute text and images via the web to create what they call a “picture of contemporary Canada.”
Details on how to contribute will be launched in the coming months. The $2.5 million festival is being funded by the federal, provincial and territorial governments, private sponsors and the Olympic committee. Funding from the provincial and territorial governments is part of an agreement they’ve all signed to have an official affiliation with the Games. Cuts to arts funding in general was a heated topic during the recent federal election and Robert Kerr, the program director of the Olympiad, said the event does help Canada’s arts and music community.
“We’ve been committed to a robust arts and cultural program right from the start,” Kerr said.”It’s definitely a new event and a new festival and a really powerful focus on arts and culture that it brings something quite substantial to the community that wasn’t here before.” While most performances will be in Vancouver and Whistler areas but organizers are also putting together a touring program that will see some of the artists perform across Canada.
Next year’s Olympiad is the second Vancouver organizers have staged and will run from Feb. 1 to Mar. 21, 2009.
A third Olympiad will be held in 2010.
A complete list of events can be found on www.vancouver2010.com/culturalolympiad.
