With another Canada Day comes another Mountain Mosaic Festival, and this year’s event promises to be bigger and better than ever.
“I just love seeing how many people come out to the event,” said organizer Kim Turgeon. “It’s amazing when you’re standing there as the organizer, you’ve put all this time and effort into it, you hear the parade and all of a sudden just thousands of people descend on the grounds.”
While the festival started out as a kids’ art festival presented by the Columbia Valley Arts Council during the summer months, the eventual inclusion of Canada Day activities means the festival has blossomed into one of the premier Columbia Valley summertime events, with a much wider scope than just the arts and crowds numbering in the thousands. Taking place on the grounds of the Pynelogs Cultural Centre at Kinsman Beach in Invermere, this year’s festival features a wide range of free activities for festival-goers of every age and description.
“I think people love it, it’s become an expected part of Canada Day,” said Turgeon. “It’s just grown so huge, and we’re expecting really big crowds this year.”
The lead-in to the festival is the annual Canada Day parade, organized by the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #71 and beginning at 11 a.m. Following the parade, festivities begin at noon at Kinsmen Beach with headline performer Paulo, a children’s entertainer from Calgary, on the Home Hardware-sponsored entertainment stage. There will also be performances from the Invermere Irish Dancers, folk singers Norma Macdonald and Steven Bowers, dancers from Desiderata Dance Studio and performer Lulu the Clown.
“There’s going to be tons of stuff to do,” Turgeon confirmed.
Of course, alongside the entertainment will run the usual maze of booths and activities, including the always-popular Transformation Station where kids can have their faces painted and get fake tattoos, a kids’ painting station, a bubble tent, a hula hoop and skipping rope section, a bouncy castle, rock painting, and the annual Cops for Kids boat-building contest and race.
Turgeon estimates over 2,000 people will attend this year’s event, which is entering its ninth year.