2020VISION marks the 17th annual Sechelt Arts Festival, a popular Sunshine Coast fall event that has grown from an outdoor two-day event in the park to a two-week tapestry of arts and cultural events at various Sechelt venues. Each year the festival combines multi-genre dance, music, visual art, educational workshops, street art, and historical remembrances of the Coast’s unique local heritage featuring over 75 artists, performers, and technicians.
Due to the pandemic, the 2020 events will be conducted in accordance with all public health orders and recommendations and offer a hybrid of live and digital events.
This year the festival runs from Oct. 8 to 25. Three amazing 2020 visual art events will be featured at three local venues and each will overlap the Oct. 23-25 Sunshine Coast Art Crawl, including a community paint-by-number collaboration in Trail Bay Centre.
Over a dozen Coast artists will be featured at the 2020Vision Art Exhibition in Teredo Square and the experiential art event Meme Me at the SC Arts Centre. Watch for the Meme Me special livestreaming event with art, dance, and music on Thursday, Oct. 15. The Steamship Stories heritage exhibit will be on display in the Trail Bay Mall from Oct. 15 to 24 offering engaging memories of Sechelt’s maritime history.
The Raven’s Cry Theatre stage will come alive with not one but two Coast premiere events: Dave Brubeck Centenary Concert on Oct. 9, featuring Halfmoon Bay musician Dan Brubeck, and a Josh Beamish World Dance Premiere on Oct. 17 and 18, featuring solos and duets created in isolation and introducing two Coast emerging dance artists. There will be a limited number of live tickets released for sale as well as a digital streamed version available online at a later date. Josh Beamish will also present a special live master dance class on Friday, Oct. 16, perfect for local emerging dance artists. Check out the online events and get ticket information at secheltartsfestival.com.
To wrap up two weeks of engaging art, music, and dance, fire dancers from Cool Heat will provide several spectacular outdoor fire and light shows in Hackett Park on Saturday, Oct. 24 starting at dusk.
As the festival’s presenting sponsor, the District of Sechelt is committed to supporting art and cultural activities, to promote community diversity, engagement, and community vibrancy. The festival continues to reflect this mandate and aims to present another amazing year of educational and entertaining activities.
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