The more we get together ...

A few years ago, Mark Hopkins decided he wanted to meet everyone in Calgary, so he sent out an e-mail inviting anyone who wanted to attend to come to his apartment one Sunday night.

He called it We Should Know Each Other #1 (WSKEO).

That was 99 We Should Know Each Other parties ago. Number 100 happens Saturday, and Hopkins figured he couldn’t fit everyone who wants to come into his apartment, so he’s throwing it at a different venue: King Edward School in Marda Loop.

It will be the public’s first opportunity to check out the King Edward School, which CADA and CSpace bought last year and are converting into an arts incubator.

When I was there for a press tour last winter, it was an old, spooky, empty 100 year old sandstone heritage building that was oddly preserved, apart from the complete lack of people in it. If it reminded me of anything, it was that hotel Jack Nicholson went crazy in The Shining.

“It is not dissimilar to a horror movie set,” Hopkins says. “We’re doing our best for the weekend to minimize the horror movie set vibe.

“But it’s such a cool building,” he adds, “and I can’t tell you how psyched I am to be working in there ... the architecture of the school is in remarkably good shape, particularly the part we’re using, especially considering that it’s been sitting empty for 10 years.

“It’s just a rad space. It’s the architecture from 100 years ago. It’s sandstone. It’s got really interesting archways.”

To honour the fact that it’s Arts and Culture Days, Hopkins — who’s also a playwright and associate producer of the High Performance Rodeo — is programming the space with over 70 different acts that will be performing all weekend, in every available nook.

“A big part of this building is (going to be dedicated to) arts,” he says, “so that’s going to range from the Green Fools to we’ve got a bunch of poetry events. Pages on Kensington is hosting a local authors event, the Calgary Spoken Word Society is hosting 100,000 Poets for Change. We’re going to have the Cowtown Opera group there as well.

“But in addition to arts,” he says, “I’ve got Three Things for Calgary, which is out of the Mayor’s Office.

“We’ve got robotic furniture, which you can drive around. There’s a 3-D printer. There’s a comedy magician. There’s a slow dance party. Awesome Calgary is having their pitch party. We’re doing a wildlife themed movie on the outside of the school. First Calgary Financial and Momentum are going to be doing a financial literacy and haiku contest.”

(There will also be a pop-up containR on-site, a sneak preview to what the Fluid Festival is presenting in the East Village starting October 10).

“It’s arts,” he says, “but it’s also everything else — we’re trying to do a snapshot of the diversity of the awesomeness of things happening in Calgary.”

So what’s the take-away from throwing 99 parties and meeting a few thousand Calgarians, Mark?

“There’s a craving in Calgary to step out of your social comfort zone,” he says, “to meet the other people you’re not interacting with on a daily basis and I’ve seen that over and over, whether I’m hosting in my living room, or hosting a political event, or an event at a bookstore or art gallery. people are really open to adventure and trying something new.”

WSKEO #100 starts at 10 a.m. Saturday morning (until 10 p.m. Saturday night), and from 10 a.m. Sunday to 4 p.m.

Speaking of Arts and Culture Days, Olympic Plaza will be the scene of a free concert, hosted by CBC personality George Stroumboulopoulos, Nirmala Naidoo, and David Gray. It all kicks off at 5:30 p.m., and features the Dudes, Samantha Savage Smith and High Valley, among others.

What’s The Soulocentric Festival? It’s a festival of emerging, up and coming performing artists from Calgary and Edmonton, who will be performing at the Vertigo Studio Theatre between Oct 3 and 6th. It helps, says Soulocentric’s artistic director Jenny Repond Peters, if you think of it as onestop shopping to catch a glimpse of what may be some of our city’s next batch of performing art stars.

“I like to describe it as a smorgasbord of the local performing arts scene,” Peters says. “Because we focus on theatre, music and dance — and since artists are so multidisciplinary these days, everybody is mixing movement and song.

“It’s a good sampler, and a way for people to get a look at their own emerging talent,” she says, “and indie self-producing talent is what the Soulocentric Festival is all about.”

In other words, think of it as the World Junior High Performance Rodeo? “It kind of is, yes,” Peters says. There are a number of shorter pieces — particularly dance — as well as a full-length solo show each evening. Those three include Jennifer Roberts’ Wilma May and Her Tight White Socks (Wed Oct 3 @ 8 p.m.), (my wife) Melanee Murray’s The Hoodwink (Thursday Oct 4 at 9:30 p.m.), which won three awards at the 2012 Calgary One Act Play Festival and just finished a successful Calgary Fringe run; and Jamie Tognazzini, whom we last saw blowing the house down in Toxic Avenger: The Musical, will perform Fishscale Raincoat Friday Oct 5 at 9:30 p.m.

For those of you awash in Calgary culture who might be looking for something new, how about escaping to an award-winning dose of Lethbridge culture? Opening Oct 2 at Motel is Greetings from Sardineland, by James Wade, the winner of the 2011 University of Lethbridge Play Right Prize, as well as runner-up in the Ottawa Little Theatre’s 2012 National One-Act Playwriting Competition. The play is set in the 1950s, and tells the story of Sam and Max, two men from different generations who create a violent and controversial detective comic that attracts the unwanted attention of the United States Senate (think McCarthy Era witch hunt). It runs through the 6th, with a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. Tickets are $15 and available at the Epcor Centre box office, or by calling 403-294-9494.