True North festival will take over downtown
KITCHENER — It’s not all bits, bytes and technology.
The True North Downtown Kitchener will run for three nights during Communitech’s annual technology conference. It will showcase Kitchener and Waterloo to out-of-town visitors and is open to residents who do not work in tech. Most of the 22 festival events are free.
The festival features live music, tours, craft beer and food pairing, outdoor yoga, a documentary screening, place hacking and exhibitions.
“We have a big, banner event happening each night,” said Briton Burgio, a Communitech project manager leading the festival planning.
The festival begins Tuesday night with an event called Why Waterloo?
Shuttle buses will carry festival goers to six venues for that — the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Shopify, Vidyard, Catalyst137 and the central branch of the Kitchener Public Library. There will be four shuttle buses departing from The Delta Waterloo, the Crowne Plaza Kitchener-Waterloo, the Tannery building and the Communitech Data Hub in Waterloo. Everyone is welcome on the tour and buses will loop among the venues for three hours.
“Tuesday night I think is going to be a lot of fun,” said Burgio. “There are four bus stops where people can hop on and hop off. Very fluid, you don’t have to register.”
Alysha Brilla and the Brilltones will play at the Waterloo Town Square on 5 p.m. Tuesday. At the same time, the neo-classical/neo-flamenco guitar sensation Juneyt will play the True North Lounge in the Walper Hotel. The Data District Deco Party will run 9 to 11 p.m. inside 1 King St. N. This event is free, but you have to register.
On Wednesday night there is also is lots of live music. The Downtown Kitchener Business Improvement Area will have live music at a number of patios around the downtown. There is also a concert at Carl Zehr Square in front of Kitchener City Hall where three bands are scheduled to play — The Beaches, Hugo Alley and the Monowhales.
The jazz-blues-soul fusion artist Joni NehRita will play the True North Lounge at the Walper Hotel at 5 p.m.
Also happening Wednesday night is a Night Shift farewell party at the Kitchener Market, yoga in Victoria Park and a Maker Expo.
“Wednesday night there is a lot going on,” said Burgio.
The True North conference wraps up Thursday at 3:15 p.m., but the festival continues that night. At 4:30 p.m. the documentary Dream, Girl, about female startup founders and entrepreneurs, screens at the Apollo Cinema.
There also is a party at Themuseum that night. It is part of Quartetfest and the launch of the Open Ears Festival of New Music and Sound. This is a ticketed event.
About 2,000 people are expected to come to the True North conference. Some are travelling from Hong Kong, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand, India, Jamaica and the United States.
“The festival is a great way to showcase our region,” said Burgio. “We want conference attendees to know this is a great place to work and live.”