‘Crazy’ crowd warms up to Silver Skate Festival
Sculpture burning goes ahead as planned while other events moved back, cancelled
“You’re all crazy,” said the king to the people who had gathered around the snowplowed circle Saturday night as the temperature fell to a low of -28 C with a wind chill making it feel like -35 C.
In the circle, a wooden sculpture made throughout the day by a group of artists was soon to be incinerated based on their interpretation of the story The Land of the Golden Apples.
That story is part of the interactive theatre piece in the storytelling tent at the Silver Skate Festival in William Hawrelak Park.
Festival goers can write down sad memories or feelings.
They will be placed inside the sculpture before it’s set ablaze, thus releasing people of the depressing thoughts.
As the performers leave the tent and head toward the sculpture accompanied by the sound of beating drums and colourful lights, the actor in the lead, “the king,” calls out to festival goers.
The crowd calls back and the king then calls for the sculpture to be burned.
“Burn this thing and end this winter.”
The crowd begins to loudly chant, “burn it, burn it, burn it,” to the beat of the drums.
A person with a lit torch walks toward the centre and the king calls out yet again, “Wait, set me on fire,” to which the crowd laughs. The laughter grows as the person with the torch takes steps toward the king, who is quickly walking away.
The torch touches the ground and a trail of fire heads toward the sculpture, then rises in the belly of the wooden beast as the crowd cheers while the fire and light grows and glows.
That was just one of the attractions at the Silver Skate Festival, being held until Feb. 18.
While this performance wasn’t stopped by the extreme cold, the Northgate skate races, try speedskating and try figure skating demonstrations were cancelled because of weather.
The forecast this week looks to be a little warmer, but the city is still looking at minus temperatures in the double digits.
Birkie Sunday has been moved to Feb. 17, Cabane a sucre was cancelled on the weekend, but other dates are still a go and horse-drawn sleigh rides are to be determined.
People going to the festival are urged to dress weather appropriately and check silverskatefestival.org for any updates on event changes.