Synchronicity is about being connected, said the organizers of the third annual Synchronicity Festival, Aug. 25 and 26, in a park near Gibsons.
It involves artists and other creative people getting together in nature to share with an interactive audience. Maybe each person will come away with a new idea, a new inspiration.
"They bring their own visions, their own dreams, to a setting that they don't normally experience," said festival artistic director Chad Hershler.
The first Synchronicity Festival was at Deer Crossing, the Art Farm, in 2010. But the farm, the grassy and forested land near Langdale where Hershler lives with partner Sandy Buck, had reached capacity. They never regarded the art farm as festival grounds, though it will always remain a space for cultural activities.
"Now we need to grow," he said. "This festival should be in the thousands, not hundreds."
Last year, organizers moved to Shirley Macey Park on Chamberlin Road with its wide fields for art installations and display booths and a wooded area where the Rainforest Circus will take place. In the past, Buck and Hershler had organized a team of volunteers to clear the trails of the neglected regional district's Frisbee golf area (a game played among the trees with the intent of catching a Frisbee in a chained trap) and their work has paid off. The trail into the forest leads down to a natural amphitheatre where the first act will take place among the trees, ferns and bird song.
Circus performers include Steve Wright, who will lead audience from one scene to the next, movement artists Catherine and Alison Denham, costume designer and artist Buck, a sculptural artist, River Rohlicek, a poet, Eilis Carpentier, who incorporates the written word, and Hershler and two other actors who will give a theatrical presentation.
The show is called The Circus at the End of the World, in reference to the Mayan calendar prediction for 2012, but Hershler hastened to say that it's all about fun and frolic, not doom.
The Rainforest Circus is key to the festival, but it's not the only attraction. Art in the Park features the work of local artists and a travelling art show, in which the artists must forego the white gallery walls and bright lights of a traditional exhibition.
"Here you have to create the setting," Hershler pointed out. "It gives a shift in perception."
Visitors can stroll the field to view art and learn from the Pollinate workshops, educational outreach programs that ignite a creative spark.
Musicians Anna Lumiere and Graham Ord will add their charm to the day periodically, and Lumiere will make music again with Serena Eades as part of Sostenuto.
On Saturday evening Pecha Kucha takes place under the stars. This unique show of photographs is definitely not someone's vacation slides. Each photographer is given 20 seconds per image and can show only 20 images, and the subjects cover everything imaginable.
Food and drink will be available.
The festival runs from 10:30 a.m. to late on Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free, but circus performances, taking place four times a day, cost $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. Buy your tickets early in the day at the site; the capacity for a forest walk is only 100 people and this was a popular event last year.
"Come, even if it's sunny!" said organizers, jokingly.
You'll enjoy the forest walk in both rain and shine. For more about how to synchronize, see www.synchronicityfestival.ca.
