Terrarium creation was one of the hands on activities available at the THRiVE Festival Expo Saturday afternoon.
(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)
June 24, 2013 - 5:38 PM
KAMLOOPS – Those who enjoy the art of gardening, the culinary arts or the more traditional fine arts all got the chance to indulge at the THRiVE Festival this weekend, where a mixture of arts mediums came together in a three-day festival focused on making memories.
At the expo, static art exhibits, hands-on gardening demonstrations, interactive exhibits and speakers kept the crowds interested but the highlights were Busy Bees and the Sheepherders.
The Busy Bees were led by whoever was willing to give directions, all done through a hidden ear piece, and made their way around the concourse doing jazz snaps, lunges, hops, shimmies and even swarming unsuspecting festival goers. Festival manager Amanda Lynne Ballard took her hand at being 'Queen Bee' for awhile before dissolving in laughter and passing the microphone on to the next person.
The Sheepherders matched sheep to a hidden pattern only by directions called out from people chosen from the crowd.
The interactive displays were all part of a plan put in place by artistic director Alan Corbishley to not only entertain people but to also engage them and the participants had nothing but praise for his creative displays.
“I'm absolutely thrilled with how things are going,” Ballard said Saturday, adding that her intention was to win the enormous floral chandelier up for auction and on display in the garden living room, created by the Kamloops Master Gardeners.
“I have nowhere to put it, but I really want it. They did an amazing job with it, with this room.”
Concerts, speakers, an Iron Chef competition featuring local ingredients and displays by Tk'emlups te Secwepemc rounded out the weekend of events. While the inaugural event was only two-and-a-half days, organizers have a plan to grow the festival to a 10 days by 2018. By this time Ballard expects the amount and type of talent to have expanded as well.
To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)819-3723 or tweet @JennStahn.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013