New Summer Festival Needs a Name: win free tickets

Andrew Templeton
Your name (well, your name idea) up in lights

Vancouver is getting a new performing arts festival and your help is needed in naming it.

The new Festival will be held in July of this year in East Vancouver. Venue and exact performance dates will be announced shortly.

The working title is Evolution but the organizers – Upintheair Theatre, Left Right Minds and MachineFair – believe there is a better name out there waiting to be discovered.

Evolution is a nod to Upintheair’s popular Walking Fish Festival an event devoted to showcasing emerging theatre talent. Although Walking Fish will remain an important component of the new Festival, the organizers are looking for a name that better reflects the wider mandate and programming of the new event.

Based on Toronto’s successful, SummerWorks, the Festival will provide a platform for theatre artists to showcase and try out new and experimental work. The objective is to feature work that takes risks, is creative and has a clear artistic vision. At the same time, the work should be accessible and engaging for an anticipated audience of 20-40 year olds.

Although theatre will be at the core of the Festival for its inaugural year, it is hoped that the programming will expand to embrace other art forms so that in time it will become a true neighbourhood happening and a cultural highpoint of the summer.

In thinking of names, some of the key concepts the organizers are working with include:

Excitement

Summer

Performance

Innovation

Experimental

East Vancouver

Fresh

Inclusion

Quality

Neighbourhood

West Coast

Can you think of a name that can evoke the feel of the Festival? One that will make it intriguing for potential audiences and supporters? Send in your ideas. The author of the selected name will receive two passes to the Festival.

Send your idea, name, email address and contact phone number to: [email protected]

The deadline for submission of ideas is January 31st.

Please visit  the Upintheair site for more information about the Festival. The deadline for artists interested in participating in 2010 is also January 31st