By Gillian Brunette
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts 2007 15th celebratory season will be remembered as being a very successful year.
Thanks to the highest recorded ticket sales to date, a warm, cosy and inviting Algonquin Theatre, and a good mix of artistic performances, the festival ended the core season with some money in the bank.
“We had a good year. It was great. It was fun and the shows were good,” reported HFA president Kareen Burns at a board wrap-up meeting last week.
The festival also presented more shows this year with the introduction of a mini-jazz festival in August. It was very well received, thus ensuring a jazz weekend will now become an annual event.
There were several sold-out shows this past season but a couple of others that, surprisingly, were not well attended. Perla Batalla and her tribute to Leonard Cohen, for instance, was an awesome experience, but even the great Montreal poet’s name failed to draw the masses.
While the festival's core season is over for another year, there will be a few HFA sponsored performances still to come this fall. Tickets are selling well for Friday’s Freddie Vette and the Flames concert, Colin James plays to an already sold-out show on Oct. 5, the a capella group Cadence returns on Oct. 19 and comedian Lorne Elliott also makes a return visit on Nov. 17.
Meanwhile, the festival board is preparing for its annual general meeting which takes place on Oct. 13 in the Algonquin Theatre’s Partners Hall. This meeting is open to the public and is also a time when the board solicits new members to its advisory committee for the coming year.
Festival board members each undertake certain roles within the organization geared to their own area of expertise and passion. Committees focus on sponsorship, promotions and marketing, fringe mosaic, administration and the May Marché, the biggest HFA fundraiser of the year.
Anyone interested in obtaining more information about the meeting and/or becoming involved in the Huntsville Festival of the Arts can contact festival general manager Rob Saunders at 789-1935.
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts is not just about presenting live shows at the Algonquin Theatre, however. Every year the group has added new fringe events, such as the Arts Splash, Arts Walk, Jazz in the Garden, Muskoka Novel Marathon, Monday Night at the Movies and the Poetry Café, to its list of activities. Next year, perhaps, we will introduce a writers’ club, featuring readings from visiting authors. The festival is forever evolving.
At the beginning of the year, Kareen, in her new role as president, outlined her vision for the festival. This included facilitating strong alliances with other art groups in Huntsville; the development of new ‘avant garde’ fringe events, and nurturing young local talent through the festival’s education outreach committee.
With some extra funds now made available, thanks to our patrons, the festival will be working closely with Huntsville High School’s Greg Sutherland to determine how we can further help the school bring the arts to its students.
Other programs the festival helped to sponsor financially this year included the inter-active Kaleidoscope for elementary school students and the Group of Seven Outdoor Mural Festival.
Other new initiatives include this column, the Trumpeter, a monthly forum through which festival board members can keep readers informed of the festival’s various activities.
And, we introduced a blog, www.trumpeterhfa.blogspot.com, as just one other way to reach out to our patrons. If you haven’t yet checked it out, please do, and while there, why not send us your comments as to what shows you would like to see next year?
