The House That Jack Built…

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a play in Toronto, “The House That Jack Built”. The play was created and produced by members of the Suitcase Theatre Company. I had been invited to see the play by one of its creators, Whitney Smith. It was a “Puppet Musical” and had been developed especially for kids! The fact that I enjoyed the play proves that I am a “big kid at heart”! Yes, I must admit that I really enjoyed myself and, judging by reaction of the other “big kids” in the audience, they enjoyed it too! If you read my article at http://www.ontariofestivalsvisited.ca/fesivals/2009/winter/suitcase_theatre.htm you will learn that the play was loosely based on the poem, The House That Jack Built. After the play I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Whitney. During our conversation we talked about the Company’s desire to present this play, and others, to audiences throughout southern Ontario. They would like to do this at festivals and events during the summer and fall months. I would suggest that if you want to have some great fun with your kids and grand kids, look for festivals and events featuring one of the Suitcase Theatre’s plays. As stated on their website (http://www.suitcasetheatre.com/index.html) “Suitcase Theatre is an independent arts company operated under the auspices of the Seeds of Hope Foundation, (http://www.seedsofhope.ca/) a non-profit charitable foundation that oversees five social rejuvenation projects in downtown Toronto aimed at nurturing the talents of people facing special challenges.“

Artists’ Series – Marg Lamendeau

This is the seventh in a series about Canadian artists I have know, and worked with.

I can’t remember the exact circumstances of meeting Marg and Kenny Lamendeau. I think Marg had enquired about becoming an exhibitor at the Cobourg Waterfront Festival in the Lions/Lioness Art Show and Sale. Whatever the circumstances, we formed a closed bond shortly thereafter. Marg became a valued customer and Marg and Kenny became close friends! Marg was one of the top selling artists at the Cobourg Show and was always in the top 5 in sales. Cobourg wasn’t the only show she exhibited at. ASs a matter of fact, I think they were at one show or another almost every weekend during the summer and fall months. It was a very tough schedule and one that they tired of after several years on the road. I think the funniest moment in our relationship came when I was delivering a load of freshly framed prints to her at one of the International Plowing Matches. It had rained heavily just before the Match started and the fields were pure mud! Marg told me that vendors tried to get through the mud to set up their booths but couldn’t. Festival organizers had to arrange tractor pulled wagons to help. She described the day that she and Kenny had arrived. “We tried walking to our booth area, but every step became harder and harder. We were sinking down into the mud so low that it kept sucking our booths off as we tried to take our steps. Kenny finally had to carry me back to hard ground!" When I met them at the Match, the ground had hardened. The weather, however, had taken its toll! Both Marg and Kenny, when they greeted me, look like they had been competing in a mud wrestling tournament! Fortunately not too many shows were like that! During the helicon days of print sales, I spent a great deal of time either driving to and from their home in Arnprior or sitting in their kitchen drinking hot tea and munching on a goodie or two! I miss trips to Arnprior and sitting and talking with Marg and Kenny! However, times change and so do our lives. Marg eventually tired of the nomad life and moved off in other directions, while Judi and I left the art and framing business altogether.

Choosing Where To Go…

Going to a festival or event is very personal. Where you decide to go will depend on many factors, interests, location, costs, dates, etc. Finding out about festivals and events can be frustrating. Most people want to get value for money spent. Word of month is probably the best way to find out about an event. It’s also a great way to evaluate an event, especially if you trust the person who makes the recommendation. We hope that you use Ontario Festivals Visited as a source. We are always glad to share our experiences. Unfortunately we can’t visit every festival or event in Ontario (we wish we could), but there are over 3,000 of them! So, to help you choose, I am going to give you some tips. These are some of the techniques Judi and I use to make our choices.
1. Event Calendars – There are a number of event calendars available on the internet. Here is where you can find three of them: Ontario Festival Visited (http://www.ontariofestivalsvisited.ca/); Festivals and Events Ontario (http://www.festivalsandeventsontario.ca/) and Ontario Tourism (http://www.ontariotravel.net/). We check these first to find festivals or events that we might be interested in visiting.
2. Festival/Event Websites – Most of these calendars have direct links to the different festivals/events that are displayed. So if you find an event that you are interested in, you can go and check out their website.
3. Review Website – Most website will give you enough details to tell what kind of festival or event it is. Information like costs, location, dates and activities. One note of caution, make sure that you are looking at a current site. Many festivals don’t keep their sites up-to-date or have a different site for each year. Some festivals cancel their event but don’t delete their website. Believe me, it can become very confusing if you don’t pay attention to what you are reading.
4. Bad Weather – Check the website to see what there weather policy is. If it is an outdoor event, does it run, rain or shine? Many festivals include this information on their website. If not, you might want to check with the organizers. This was especially true last year with all the awful weather we experienced.
5. Contact Organizers – Where you have any doubt, contact the organizers. Most websites include contact information, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, etc. If they don’t include this information, I would be very leery of going to the event. There many be nothing wrong, but!
6. Internet Articles – Using the Search Engine, “Google” (http://www.google.com/), can be very helpful. If you go to “Google” and type in the name of the festival or event you are interested in, the list that Google gives you should not only include the festivals/events website, but will likely include a list of people who have visited the event and have written about it. These articles will give lots of information, good and bad, about the event you are researching. I always read the articles, especially the negative ones, with a “grain of salt”. Anyway, they will at least give you a sense of the event.
Happy choosing!

Shawn King – SEO Master/Friend

You know how when you first meet someone, you instinctively know whether or not you are going to become friends! Shawn King was one of those people I instantly knew was going to become a friend. It started like any other meeting. A company had purchased the hosting company I was working with and Shawn work for the takeover company. He was in charge of servicing (and calming) the acquired customers. I was one of those who needed calming and Shawn met the challenge! This all happened when I was first establishing my Ontario Festivals Visited website. Frankly, during those first shaky days he went far beyond normal customer service! Since those first days he has helped me wind my way through the maze called the internet! Shawn’s expertise is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. He has made a study of how best to optimize websites to obtain maximum results! He has taught me what to look for and how to overcome obstacles. This has helped the Ontario Festivals Visited website become one of the top 3 – 4 websites for the keywords, Ontario festivals and Ontario festivals and events, on all the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN). Our traffic count has also gone up steadily. We now have over 4,000 visitors per month with an average of over 30,000 pages open per month. And over this time, Shawn and I have become friends, so much so that we are now partnering on several projects. Judi’s fine art website (http://judimcwilliamsfineart.com/) was one of them, but the one closest to my heart is the restructuring of the Ontario Festivals Visited website. We are working, right now, to make the site the best festival and event website in the world! A tall and daunting task I know, but one I feel worthwhile and, better yet, achievable! The next few years will tell the tale, but with friends like Shawn, who can miss!

Ontario Festivals Visited - New Features

It has taken the best part of a month, but we now have two fully working new features on the Ontario Festivals Visited website. Although we had hoped that the new features would be up and working at the beginning of February, plans just didn’t work out that way! The first feature we are introducing is the “Visitor’s Forum”. Here visitors to our website can post comments about any of the festivals we have visited and written about. The comment section can be found at the bottom of each event page. Festival organizers are encouraged to post updated information about their festival in this section. For those festivals and events that we haven’t been able to visit yet, we have added an additional page, “Visitor’s Forum Plus”, that allows website visitors to tell us about their favourite (or least favourite) festivals and events. It’s all about sharing information! The second feature we have added is “Rate This Festival”. This feature encourages website visitors to complete festival and event surveys about the events that Judi and I have visited. We have designed the surveys to help festival organizers develop better and more interesting events. This feature can also be found at the bottom of each event page. Now festival visitors will be able to add their “two cents worth”! As I have mentioned before, this is just the beginning of big changes for Ontario Festivals Visited. Our next major project is under development. Stay tuned!