Heading back ‘home’ for ArtsWells festival

The ArtsWells Festival of All Things Arts is a magical experience. I am leaving for ArtsWells tomorrow and I am thrilled. I have mentioned in previous columns, my personal history with Wells and Barkerville, but I will provide a brief recap for readers who are unfamiliar with the brilliant awesomeness of these little towns in the Cariboo.

I grew up in Prince George and we went to Barkerville Historic Town nearly every summer. My first (and only) co-op term took place in Barkerville and in the summer after my first year of university, I met my future husband and the bulk of my lifelong friends in the little town of Wells.

I spent only two full-time summers in Wells and even though I have never moved back to the area, it will always be “home” to me.

The drive to Wells is familiar and each bend of the road that brings us closer to home fills me with joy.

A former resident and painter, Marie Nagel, has a particular painting that I always admired. The painting is a beautiful abstract with broad brushstrokes of bright colours of the last bend in the highway with the Jack O’ Clubs lake just peeking out behind the trees before Wells comes into view. I believe the painting is called Almost Home and it was also used as the cover for a compilation CD of the same name as a fundraiser for Island Mountain Arts. I am looking forward to seeing that view again.

If you are looking for me at ArtsWells this year, you will find me watching great music (Dan Bern, Craig Cardiff, Rae Spoon, Samson’s Delilah, Kym Gouchie, Ken Hamm, Joey Only Outlaw Band, Ross Douglas, and William Kuklis to name a few).

You will see me sneaking in to the back of the poetry events when someone else is watching the kids. You will see me with my family and some very excellent friends enjoying the outdoor stages and dancing with the kids.

You may catch us dancing outside Pooley Street or coveting the art in The Amazing Space. You will find us walking through the bog and trying not to fall in the creek.

You will see hundreds of people having a good time and you should be there too.

ArtsWells is not to be missed.