The kids fest turns 35

Check out Kollide. Spun from the Kids Fest’s long-time butterfly theme, Kollide is a large-scale installation currently in progress, inside and out, at St. Albert Place. Festival coordinator Stephen Bourdeau explains that in honour of the festival’s 35th year, the idea is to gather 35,000 butterflies, in every medium from paper to stained glass, from the community. Corey Landsdell and Kelly Mellings of Pulp Studios are collecting and attaching them to the finished structure.

The eight mainstage offerings at the $1.3-million festivities, which attract 50,000 to 60,000 people every year, are from four countries (Canada, Guinea, Netherlands, United States). They cover the spectrum of theatre, music, dance, acrobatics, storytelling.

Theatre at the Kids Fest: Unlike other years, there’s only one international touring theatre production in the lineup, Love That Dog by Theatergroep Kwatta from the Netherlands. But the festival premieres a new Emil Sher play, The Book of Ashes. And St. Albert Children’s Theatre presents Freckleface Strawberry, a 2010 OffBroadway musical culled from the best-selling book by author/actor Julianne Moore.

Featured performance tickets remain $11, with $3 tickets to the 15 interactive site activities. New this year: The Kids’ Butterfly Pass. For $20 you get unlimited access to all site activities, Toddler Town, face painting, and a bag of popcorn.