You can tickle the ivories and your inner musician
8 pianos will be placed around Kelowna
Telus may be a new sponsor this year to the popular Pianos in the Parks program, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at one of the instruments. Not quite, anyway. Neither the company name nor its logo appears on the piano it sponsored. But it is decorated with bright purple hummingbirds in a many reminiscent of Telus’ familiar TV ads.
“We say to potential sponsors, ‘The pianos are not mini-billboards, so you can’t advertise on them,” Festivals Kelowna director Renata Mills said Tuesday, as this year’s program was launched.
“The pianos have to be artistic in nature, but they might be painted in a way that sort of reflects the company,” MIlls said.
For example, the ReMax-sponsored piano includes balloons, much as the company’s advertising has long done.
Again this year, eight pianos will be placed around Kelowna for passers-by to play anytime of the day or night.
“It’s a simple way to animate public spaces,” Mills said.
“We know it’s a very much beloved program, because of all the references on social media and the fact that at least once a day I get calls from people wanting to donate a piano.”
Such offerings have to be politely declined, as the program is now set at five pianos downtown, one at the cemetery, and two in Rutland.
Five of the pianos from last year are being used again, testament both to the instruments’ durability and the perhaps surprising reality that they are not often targeted by vandals. “People are pretty good about that,” Mills said. New this year are sturdier covers intended to shield the pianos from the rain and sun.
Once again, the pianos are located far enough away from any residential areas that complaints about nocturnal dissonance shouldn’t be a problem.
“You can tinkle the ivories at 4 a.m., if you want,” Mills said.