November 28, 2008

Publication title: The Province, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Damian Inwood

McLachlan Tops 2009 Festivities

West Vancouver megastar Sarah McLachlan will be the headline act at a Feb. 12 concert marking the one-year countdown to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.

Tickets for the show, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, go on sale Saturday, for $54 to $69, 2010 officials said yesterday.

The concert is part of a $2.5-million “cultural Olympiad festival,” which runs from Feb. 1 to March 21.

Program director Bob Kerr said 400 performances and exhibitions will be staged “that reflect the creative pulse of our time.”

Vancouver 2010 has partnered with 70 arts and cultural groups on 97 different projects.

“There will be artists from every province and territory and from the five continents of the world,” he added. As well as conventional concerts and stage plays, the program includes a Whistler film festival where 20 “Olympic-inspired” short films will be projected on a giant screen made of snow. Another film project, called ContainR, features a cinema made of mobile shipping containers. Kerr said Israel’s Batsheva Dance Co. will make its Vancouver debut and Japan’s Awaji Puppet Theatre will perform.

“On Feb. 1, we’ll be staging the inaugural Lunar Fest, a free family event that features a lantern parade, special performances and a spectacular ‘sea of lights,’ as thousands of uniquely decorated lanterns light the Vancouver Art Gallery plaza,” he said.

Two of Canada’s hottest bands — Broken Social Scene from Toronto and Calgary’s Tegan and Sara — will play at the Orpheum Theatre Feb. 6. Kerr said the 2009 budget is almost double the 2008 festival, which attracted more than 170,000 people to the more than 400 events and cost $1.3 million. He said about half the funding comes from Vancouver 2010 with the rest from the provincial and federal governments.

Burke Taylor, 2010’s vice-president of culture and celebrations, said the festival won’t be hit by the economic downturn.

“This is not a frill for [Vancouver 2010], culture being the second pillar of the Olympic movement,” he said. “It’s an essential part of the Games.” The announcement at Vancouver 2010’s Gravely Street headquarters featured an aerial ballet by four gymnasts who dangled from ropes from the ceiling of the seven-storey atrium.