AIDS walk 2021

sept 15 - sept 22, 2021 arts & culture carillonregina.com | the carillon |

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Regina’s Busker Festival: For the love of live music!

Wascana Centre’s first annual festival brings live music at a time the community really needs it

jorah bright arts writer

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, live music has begun to feel like a luxury of the past. People have been unable to enjoy live music with their families and friends, unable to experience the feeling of the bass in the floor and a melody in the air.

On September 18, Wascana Centre is holding its first annual Busker Festival. The idea of busking has been around since the medieval period when merchants used entertainers as a way to attract more customers to their businesses. The term was coined in the mid-1850s and was used to describe people who made a living through entertainment. Nowadays, a busker is someone who performs in public, usually for money. Busker festivals, which happen all over the world, bring several of these performers to one place to perform for audiences.

Music as a whole is a great way of bringing people together, especially for events like these. Outreach and Visitor Experience’s Programming & Visitor Supervisor Lauren Hope added to this in an interview, saying, “Our main goal is always to bring out people into the community, and into Wascana and into the park, and enjoy the space.”

The arts industry has suffered throughout COVID-19, with theatres and auditoriums being closed. The Busker Festival allows music-lovers to experience live music again while remaining COVIDsafe. Concerning the challenges faced while putting on an event during COVID-19, Hope said, “We were lucky in that numbers are lower right now, and that it’s an outdoor space, so that people can space out, and socially distance.”

She also highlighted the importance of keeping the arts alive, and how this motivated the creation of the Wascana Centre Busker Festival. “We were looking at ways that we could support the arts in the midst of COVID-19, while also entertaining the people of Regina and community. We hope people can come to the park, socially distanced, and still be entertained.” And despite this being the first Wascana Centre Busker Festival, there are some great performers lined up.

Regina locals will know the artist Tyler Gilbert, a “Sask based rock singer/songwriter, [who is] playing an acoustic set of all original music. He has released five albums and toured Canada and USA, performing at festivals including Ohio State Far, Burlington’s Sound of Music, Canadian Country Music Award Festival, World Women’s Curling Championship, May Run Music Fest, Winnipeg Fringe Fest, International Folk Alliance and the Canadian Western Agribition. He receives regular airplay on CBC, Sirius XM, and digital radio stations around the world. [He was the w]inner of “Best Song from Solo Artist” in the 2020 Banger Music Awards and a 7-time nominee for the Josie Music Awards in Tennessee.”

Amber Jack Fish will also be performing at the Busker Festival, a duo who have been playing together for 10 years. One half of the duo, Amber Fyfe, “is conservatory taught and primarily plays guitar, mandolin and sings.” The other half, Jack Dublanica, “has a BA in music and does music lessons. He primarily plays banjo and fiddle” They describe their tunes as “Bluegrass, Metis, Celtic, and Old Time.”

Hope is incredibly excited for the event, and proud of her team that helped make it happen, “I’m most proud of how much support I get,” she says. “I throw out these wild ideas, sometimes, and they get behind it and help out and volunteer as much as they can and where they’re needed. I have a great team to work with.”

The festival follows another arts-based program, Arts in the Park, that happened over the summer. In the years to come, Hope intends for more arts-based programming, and another Busker Festival, to help concentrate on the arts and continue to bring more people out into the community.

The Wascana Centre Busker Festival will be on September 18, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Wascana Centre. More information on the Busker Festival can be found at https://m.facebook.com/ events/1926664214161877/.

Tyler Gilbert Sick hat, bro.

Saskatoon AIDS Walk 2021

Annual educational fundraiser teams up to help combat HIV/AIDS transmission in Saskatchewan

gillian massie staff writer

Saskatoon AIDS Walk is back in person after taking a year off from the pandemic. The walk is monumental for raising awareness and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. This year, OUTSaskatoon, Prairie Harm Reduction (PHR), and Saskatoon Sexual Health (SSH) have joined as a collective to raise awareness and funds through the fun of fitness for this event.

Saskatoon Sexual Health director and event organizer Heather Hale explains why the event is so important to partake in: “I think that there is a [sic] number of reasons: one is going to be that [the event] is fun, and it engages [the] community and people who are focused on solutions and prevention. People are always looking on how to be involved and participate and this is a great opportunity. Supporting this work indicates that the work these organizations are doing is important.”

Runners began fundraising in late August and will gather to run September 26 in front of the Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon. They will then have a closing ceremony to celebrate the top runners who will receive some extra prizes.

Runners and donors can go to saskatoonsexualhealth.ca to register as an individual or a team and begin fundraising and donating to their favorite teams. The pace and distance at which one goes is flexible, but participants can receive prizes for each milestone they achieve at the 50km, 100km, 250km, 500km, and 1000km marks. All types of runners are encouraged to participate, but Hale emphasizes how the event can be a bonding opportunity for teams: “I think being a part of a team is kind of fun. You get to come together with your friends, family or colleagues and there’s always a bit of competition between team members too.”

The skyrocketing rates of HIV infection in Saskatchewan demonstrate why individuals need to be aware of the ongoing opioid crisis and the importance of properly funding safe consumption areas.

“We know that Saskatchewan has the highest HIV rate in Canada which is double the national average and is fueled by injection drug use and further compounded by crystal meth and the overdose epidemic that our province is facing. But one of the challenges is one in five people who have HIV do not know that they are living with HIV,” said Hale, “and so certainly we want to create awareness about the realities of HIV in Saskatoon, but we also want to celebrate and share the opportunities, the care, the collaboration, the generosity, and spirit within our communities. And what we can do when we come together when we tackle problems.”

Funds raised are going toward each of the organizations involved, who plan on making advances and helping individuals by providing them with sustainable programming.

“Each organization is dedicating funds towards different things,” Hale explains. PHR is putting funds towards “outreach and engagement through their outreach programs and working and supporting sex workers.” Of the plans for her own organization, Hale says at SSH, “we are focused on testing,” which includes “connecting people with testing and treatment and access to knowing their status.” According to Hale, OUTSaskatoon is really “focusing on [the] peer support piece, so making sure folks have access to peer support and navigating systems.”

Additionally, Hale notes that, “unfortunately, the programs and services that are needed in our communities are not supported in the way that they should be, and [the severe underfunding of] safe consumption sites is a pretty glaring example of that.” Thankfully, organizations like PHR, SSH, and OUTSaskatoon, and events like the AIDS walk exist to help combat this crucial and sizable problem.