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We are very pleased to announce that Putumayo Kids will be part of the 2010 Vancouver International Children’s Festival! North America’s most renowned performing arts festival for young audiences presents the world’s finest theatre, music, dance, acrobatics, puppetry and storytelling, as well as hands-on activities for all ages.

 

The Festival will welcome more than 50,000 visitors, families with children ages 3-12, along with school groups grades K-7, to Vancouver’s Vanier Park for one exciting week, May 17-24, 2010. Artist Jay Mankita’s featured on Putumayo Kids’ album Picnic Playground will be performing 3 days at the Festival. Jay Mankita is a guitarist, singer and songwriter from Massachusetts. He drives a van that runs on recycled vegetable oil and has recorded 6 CDs, including one entirely about food. He has performed many fun and educational shows about food for children.

Jay Mankita will be performing on the Coast Capital Savings Bandshell on the holiday weekend:

Saturday, May 22: 12:00pm, 2:30pm, 5:00pm

Sunday, May 23: 11:45pm, 1:00pm, 4:15pm

Monday, May 24: 12:30pm, 3:00pm

For further details about the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, you can check: www.childrensfestival.ca

Please let us know if you plan on listing this Kids event or review some of Putumayo Kids albums in your publication; our recent titles include Picnic Playground (perfect title for the summer) and Jazz Playground (which just won the very prestigious Parents’ Choice Gold Award!) For more information about Putumayo Kids, please visit: www.putumayo.com

Tickets are priced at $20 adults and $18 Youth (under 24 Months for free) for 5 acts. We have one change in our line-up, however, from the published brochure. Our hosts are improv company Dufflebag Theatre, and the show features the National Acrobats of Taiwan, Charlotte Diamond, Ache Brasil, and now added to the show is Jamie Adkins and his one man show Circus Incognitus. Lot’s of gravity-defying fun!

The Vancouver International Children’s Festival has a new web site. This year you can look at either specific show pages, or daily schedules, and see which shows are sold out. In fact, many of our shows Monday through Thursday are already sold out, with many school groups in attendance. If you have preschoolers, they may be too young to sit through shows, and better suited to enjoying our Preschool Pavilion and other activities – admission to enjoy all the activities, storytelling tent, Gotta Dance! tent and our Bandshell is just $10 per person (under 24 months for free). You can also see which shows have tickets remaining to get your tickets in advance. On the daily schedule you can also now see the line-up for the Bandshell, Gotta Dance! and storytelling tent.

Alice in Wonderland by Theatre Tout a Trac

 

 Ache Brasil

 

 

Here are Surrey kids Matt (L) and Sevrin (R) who are teaching Hip Hop and Break on Sunday, May 23 11am – 1:30pm in the Gotta Dance! tent

 

If you’re new to the festival, weekday hours are close to school hours (hosting field trips from many metro schools), with most mainstage shows at 10:30 and 12:30. Buy a show ticket, and that includes your site admission and lots of fun festival activities that run to 3pm on weekdays. Site-only admission is $10, and shows are $16 (with the exception of our Saturday evening festival Variety Show, at $20 adults and $18 for youth 2-18 years old).

A wealth of theatre shows find fun new ways to tell familiar stories. Based on the well-known book by Robert Munsch and Michael Kusugak – both of whom have performed at our Festival – the Inuit story A Promise is a Promise (ages 5+) is brought to life by Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre. A quick-paced and slightly off-kilter adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland (ages 6-10) sparks the imagination in a set that resembles a pop-up book, by Quebec’s Théâtre Tout à Trac. More info and dates.

Vancouver’s Axis Theatre brings King Arthur’s Kitchen (ages 5-12). Amidst the hustle and bustle of Camelot’s basement kitchen, the cook regales his two assistants with stories and songs of how young Arthur became king. Using kitchen utensils to represent objects and symbols from Arthur’s legendary feats, the adventures begin, complete with great feats of daring, damsels in distress and good food! Dufflebag Theatre presents an improv Peter Pan (5+), and Matthias Kuchta is back from Germany, telling the story of The Princess and the Pea (ages 4-8) with near life-sized puppets. More info and dates 

Kellie Haines Ventriloquist

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There are new stories to tell through Kellie Haines and her puppet friends Kamilla the frog and Magrau the bird as they embark on a journey into outer space in A Space to Play (ages 3-7). More info and dates.

On the weekends hours are extended, with more activities, and the Saturday evening Variety Show at 6:30 hosted by Dufflebag Theatre, with performances by Charlotte Diamond, Aché Brasil (masters of capoeira, who you might have seen mentoring their young members in city parks), the African rhythms of Joie d’Afrique, and the incredible National Acrobats of Taiwan. It’s a long weekend, so the fun continues through Sunday (10:30-5) and the holiday Monday (10:30-4).

If you come on the weekend with kids of various ages, look for all-ages shows (the Taiwan Acrobats, Michel Lauziere, Aché Brasil, Joie d’Afrique) or shows which identify a minimum age (Circus Incognitus 7+, Dancing our Stories 7+, A Promise is a Promise 5+, and the improv Peter Pan at 5+). Parents and kids will enjoy the entertainment on the free-with-admission Coast Capital Bandshell stage with singer-songwriter (and environmental activist) Jay Mankita, and many local adult and student entertainers.

Vancouver International Children’s Festival

SUPPORT THE FESTIVAL The Vancouver International Children’s Festival is produced by Vancouver International Children’s Festival Society (VICFS), a non-profit society, charitable registration no. 11883 3532 RR0001.

Mailing Address
402 – 873 Beatty Street
Vancouver, BC  V6B 2M6  
CANADA

Telephone
604 708 5655

How to help

Visit www.childrensfestival.ca for all the details and info on tickets.