The Elora Festival is looking to bring more visitors to the area this year.
Under new festival manager Chris Sharpe a Toronto-to-Elora bus has been established for the duration of the festival, which runs from July 8 to 24.
“There will be nine bus trips between Toronto and Elora,” Sharpe said. “So we’re bringing people in and they can be flexible as to when they go.”
Once visitors arrive they can stay for as many days as they like and catch whichever bus is most convenient back to Toronto. A round trip bus ticket costs $30 and the Toronto pick up is downtown at Roy Thompson Hall. The buses run on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of each festival weekend.
Artistic director Noel Edison said he’s planned the festival so each weekend has balance and a good mix of concerts.
“I always plan so that if you’re coming for a weekend you get a good cross variety of stuff, the principal classical things but then there’s some lighter things as well and it makes for a lovely complement of a weekend,” he said. “So I always try to program (so) that it’s not a whole heavy, heavy one weekend, it’s all mixed about.”
The festival has also arranged discounts for a number of local restaurants as well as bed and breakfasts to give festivalgoers a more packaged deal.
“This is a way for us to cater to Toronto audiences who are looking to get away and this is the perfect opportunity,” Sharpe said. “We have a lot of concertgoers who come from the Toronto area anyway.”
Sharpe is also looking forward the new Starlight Jazz Series venue which is in a tent at the Grand River Raceway directly across the street from the Gambrel Barn. He encourages people to go to the barn concert and then walk across the street for a “jazz night cap.”
“I’ve negotiated with the raceway to have a special pub menu and craft beer from the Elora brewery of course,” Sharpe said. “So it will be a jazz club kind of atmosphere there. Should be very cool …
“Having been to a few jazz clubs in my time I tried to import that into this outdoor tent experience.”
Edison said he’s looking forward to the concert mix presented at the festival this year.
“First of all to our patron base which is a lot of classical and the variety that we’re offering there from national, international artists and then our greater community at large for the more popular things, our jazz series, Molly Johnson doing a Billie Holiday sort of retrospective, the Barra MacNeils, the Japanese drummers and Kids Camp,” he said. “We love our programing to embrace the whole community.”
Both Edison and Sharpe said the National Youth Orchestra of Canada will be one of the standout performances this year. The performance will take place on July 23 at Gambrel Barn at 7:30pm.
“I tell you (it’s) one of the finest groups on the continent,” Edison said. “They are the best of the younger classical artists and there are over a hundred of them (that) will be on stage one night.”
Sharpe also highlighted:
– Chanticleer, a male choral ensemble, is coming to Elora from San Francisco. They will be performing on July 15 at Gambrel Barn at 7:30pm;
– Montreal performers including Marie-Josée Lord (July 14 at St. John’s Church at 7:30pm), Molly Johnson (July 22 at Gambrel Barn at 7:30pm), the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir (July 24 Gambrel Barn at 2pm) and a couple of jazz artists coming from the Montreal area; and
– Canadian soloists who perform on the international stage including Russell Braun (July 9 at St. John’s Church at 4pm), Suzie LeBlanc (July 16 at St. John’s Church at 4pm) and Daniel Taylor and Benjamin Butterfield (July 23 St. John’s Church at 1:30pm).
“Lots of talent that’s national talent but everything has kind of an international flavour,” Sharpe said.
All of the concerts are fully accessible. Volunteers and staff are also having dementia training by the Alzheimer’s Society and they are partnering to accommodate visitors who are hard of hearing.
The festival is bringing in children for free from Guelph who otherwise would not be able to attend.
“They’re coming in for the Kids Camp performance,” Sharpe said.
“We are doing whatever we can to break down barriers and invite people to come into our spaces.”
For a full list of Elora Festival concerts and ticket information visit http://www.elorafestival.ca/.
