Heart of the City 2022 is Happening
The Heart of the City Festival Society is happy to announce that we will be holding a festival in Giovanni Caboto Park this year on Saturday, June 4th and Sunday, June 5th.
We will have three stages, as in past festivals. Our Main Stage will feature music running all day. Once again, we are working with local non-profit CreArt Edmonton to produce the Heart of the City Young Emerging Artist Stage. Under the direction of Sebastian Barrera and the young people on his board, the stage will be pumping out music on both the 4th and the 5th. Check out creartedmonton.com for more information on how to apply to play the Emerging Musician’s Stage.
The Beat Spoken Word Stage will be hosting three sessions of poetry, with some hip hop influences from the group Psych Ward Kidz and a youth open stage. We will also have an evening open stage for Edmonton’s poetry community. Workshops will be held both Saturday and Sunday. We will have a session of stand up comedy at 8 p.m. on Saturday the 4th and a Story Slam on Sunday the 5th at 4 p.m. If you are interested in signing up to perform poetry at the open stages, or to compete in the Story Slam which has a $200 prize, please email us at hotcbeatstage@gmail.com.
Our board is interested in finding out what the community wants and expects from Heart of the City. Do you feel the festival is for you? What kind of music do you want to hear? Is there anything missing from the festival? We have the opportunity to apply for a casino license. This would mean a significant increase in our funding and would take a few years and a lot of leg work to complete. Should we go ahead with the application, we would be able to produce a larger festival, pay performers and artists higher honorariums, and produce other events throughout the year, like our Indigenous Fashion Show and Community Dinner. Would you, members of our community, support this action? Please email us at heartcityfest@gmail.com or message us on Facebook if you are in favour or have any concerns.
Our main stage applications are now open to all musicians! Eighty percent of the artists we showcase have a connection to downtown, while 20 percent are from Greater Edmonton. Please check out our website at heartcityfest.com to find a link to the applications and more information about 2022’s Heart of the City Festival.
Corine Demas serves as President of the Heart of the City Festival Society of Edmonton. Corine is passionate about poetry, storytelling, and her city, Edmonton. She lives in McCauley.
