The young and young at heart will have plenty to enjoy this week in St. Albert.
The 2009 International Children’s Festival begins today at St. Albert Place, which has been home to the event for the past 15 years, according to Troy Funk, organizer of the 28-year-old festival.
“It’s the anticipation that’s exciting,” said Funk yesterday at the warm-up session for the festival, where performers celebrated with high-strung aerial dance moves and practised 35 feet in the air.
Funk said the event presents a unique chance “to share the art through different cultures with young people” and he “looks forward to it every year.”
The festival will run today until Saturday.The theme of this year’s event is to “explore the world” and cultures from different parts of Canada and from as far as Brazil, Peru, Africa and the U.S. will be featured. Nikolai Smith, a performer at yesterday’s event, said he looked forward to the festival’s “atmosphere of magic.”
The festival “gives everybody a chance to be a kid again,” he said.
