Arts groups, like everyone else, have had to pivot these last few months. In the case of the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival, that abrupt shift in focus has had its artistic producer developing new moves, and fast.

“It’s a double pivot with a quad at the end of the program,” says Shelley Switzer, who has been with the vibrant organization in one form or another since 1989. “But we’re ready to nail that quad.”

Switzer is referring to the online version of the Street Performers Festival, set to debut July 3 and running until July 12. Though it’s no longer a million-dollar program featuring hundreds of live performances, dozens of artists and manned by 225 volunteers, the new festival still retains the spirit of its beloved predecessors, says Switzer.

“Right away in March, we realized it was so important that if we can’t have the festival we wanted, (keeping) the silliness, the kindness and the need for laughter every day was so important,” she says. “In order to turn the Titanic around, we’ve been working very hard and now we have a really fantastic plan.”

Read the full article in the Edmonton Journal

By Liane Faulder
June 30, 2020