DEEP FREEZE: a wild west byzantine winter festival

I recently attended my first Edmonton festival!! Now, Edmonton is supposed to be known as the festival city, but quite frankly until I got here I had never heard of that tag line. People I talk to aren't particularly gung-ho about it, but it's still something fun. And since a friend's boyfriend was in town, I apparently got to play hostess! Even though I'm a newbie. :D

Art by Leanne Schnierer. One of my favourites at the gallery.

Deep Freeze is very arts-themed. There was an art gallery showing, but being the poor non-art type I ended up finding a more "local" art gallery which had cool local artists making stuff like hand-made beauty products, screen prints, silk bags, and things like that.  I actually really liked the screen prints and realize I don't particularly love art that are pictures of people's faces. I don't know why. I like anonymity in art? Haha.

Good ol' photography rocks too. By Tom Picard. My favourite pieces always seem a bit desolate.

At a local coffee shop called The Carrot, there were live performers and I really liked the one group playing that had a cello-ist. I admit I am a totally lover of the cello, so that just made it 10x better. From the brochure the guy's name is Paul Cournoyer and he supposedly has a presence in the music scene...so maybe it's time to start browsing Vue Weekly and see when I can catch some nice cello-ing. Unfortunately, I don't know who the guitarist was. But together, they were showcasing francophone cultural music. So not all the music was French but some songs were half-half. :P

The place was bustling and the mismatched chairs and furniture made the volunteer-powered coffee shop feel like an awesome place to be. And any place serving london fogs is kind of already a win in my books...

Another highlight was the "clown" show...which turned out to be performing artists from Quebec -- a lady and guy duo called Bande Artistique that had a bit of singing, insane juggling, cool magical acts and course... laughter! I guess there's a French theme going on, that's because Jan 12 is Francophone Cultural Day! But whoever put the info page in the brochure only put it in French so I can't really type up more here, without having to resort to Google!

I can't remember if they had a chainsaw, but they definitely had juggling knives...yikes.

What's a winter festival without ye olde snow sculptures?

The SUPER COOL random history-of-a-neighbourhood part: Arts on the Ave is a community-themed initiative to make the 118th Avenue area (from 75 - 106 street)  a better place. Apparently it used to be quite a dump, with crime, drugs, and all sorts of problems. Now I see store fronts with signs saying "I believe in 118" and it just seems so real and genuine it warms your heart. (Of course there's an XXX store too, with a "please use back door" sign...it must be weird to live at the house adjacent to that.) 

I wish I had time for all the other stuff that was offered, because I know there were wagon rides, fireworks, curling/skating, Aboriginal dancing and more according to the snazzy brochure I nicked. Oh well. All in all...there are other cool avenues asides from Whyte! I probably would've not discovered the wonderful 118th (aka Alberta) Ave had it not been for Deep Freeze! (I also want to go back and browse for some local art.... hehe.)