Annual event celebrates the folk roots of Christmas

In many cultural traditions, the longest night of the year is a cause for celebration with music and dance.
                                             

Cape Ann has a tradition of its own, which started with Rose Sheehan four years ago when she wanted to bring the tales and songs from faraway lands to her new city of Gloucester.

A former resident of Greenfield, Sheehan planted a seed for a holiday tradition that has been going for more than 30 years in the western part of the state.

Her experiment here with “Welcome Yule! A Midwinter Celebration” found an eager audience, and she is now bringing her fourth annual event to the Gloucester Meetinghouse on Saturday, Dec. 23 at 7:30 p.m. This is a free event where families and all are welcome, she said.

She explained that “yule” is the name for the pre-Christian winter solstice festivals celebrated throughout northern Europe.

Sheehan, founder of Folk Life Studio, said this program “Welcome Yule!” highlights symbols and festivities associated with those older festivals, including wassailing, holly and ivy, yule logs, candles as well as some Christmas lore that blends the old customs with the newer festival.

Songs include “The Wren Boys’ Song,” “Green Grow the Rushes, O,” “Rise Up Jock” and “The Wexford Lullaby.” This year’s featured story will be the “Legend of La Befana,” a tale of Italy’s beloved bringer of gifts on the eve of the Epiphany.

A yule log procession, in which the audience is invited to touch the log with a holly leaf and make a wish for the new year, takes place, along with songs that invite the audience to sing along.

Martin Del Vecchio of Gloucester and his family have attended these events in years past and look forward to each new iteration.

Del Vecchio said he enjoys the lively and communal nature of the event.

The performers also feel the camaraderie that is apparent in this production.

Sheehan has seen a growing interest in this winter production.

“But the challenge is trying to build a core company of adults who want to participate and have time to rehearse,” she said. “However, I will continue to work to create these kinds of productions that help people feel connected.”

Thanksgiving: An American Tradition

The American holiday of Thanksgiving is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in November. The holiday is during autumn -- the main season for harvesting crops. Thanksgiving is an autumn harvest festival like those found in many cultures around the world.
                                               

On this day, most Americans gather with friends and family. Many take time to think about what they are thankful for, cook up a storm, and eat.

The turkey is cooked in an oven for many hours, often with a mix of celery, bread, onions and spices inside the bird. This mix becomes stuffing -- another star of the Thanksgiving dinner table.

Anna Matteo here at Learning English says the smell of turkey and stuffing roasting together is the quintessential smell of Thanksgiving. “Quintessential” means the perfect example of something.

Thanksgiving Travel

Some Americans must travel long distances to be with their families. In fact, the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the entire year. This is usually when people return home from family gatherings.

Not everyone can make the return home each Thanksgiving. So, young people living in cities away from their hometowns sometimes celebrate “Friendsgiving” -- a Thanksgiving meal with their friends instead of their family. They gather at someone’s apartment or house and have a “potluck.” This is a meal where everyone who is invited brings food to share with others.

Beyond the Table

Thanksgiving is a big day for television, games and other entertainment.

One tradition is the television broadcast of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It takes place each year in New York City. Workers of the Macy’s store on Herald Square organized the first parade in 1924. Many of the workers were immigrants and wanted to hold a big parade like the ones in Europe. So, they dressed in costumes and borrowed some animals from the zoo. They also carried small balloons that floated just overhead.

Quebec Will Host Its First-Ever Legal Marijuana Festival This Summer

A cannabis festival will be held in Bas-Saint-Laurent on the weekend of July 1, 2018, when the pot will be legalized.
                                         

The group behind this initiative announced its colors by creating a Facebook page, but without revealing the exact location of the festival or programming.

Certainly, it will take place in the Bas-Saint-Laurent.

The organization wants to reserve the dates from June 30 to July 2, 2018 to offer the first cannabis festival in Quebec, which aims to educate and educate the population on the benefits of the plant for both human health and that of the planet.

One of the festival's missions will also be educating the public about the medicinal properties of cannabis and raising awareness about the responsible use of recreational cannabis.

The Trudeau government's scheduled date for legalization is July 1, 2018. This means that it will happen during the Saturday to Sunday night of the festival, which will be announced next spring.

The co-founder of the ÉchoFête de Trois-Pistoles environmental festival, activist Mikael Rioux is among others behind this initiative.
"We are here because this plant has therapeutic as well as the health of the planet. We will not even talk about everything that is recreational. We know that there will be "hot" who will come to the festival, but this is really not what we want to put forward, "says Mikael Rioux.

If there are kiosks on recreational cannabis, they will focus on the responsible way to consume, especially for the first time.

There will also be some political elements. "We would like to promote the fact that the way in which development is taking shape, with mega giant greenhouses, is not the best, we find rather that the best model would be that of cooperatives in the regions of Quebec," adds Mikael Rioux.

Pick up a festival bargain

ONLY in Airlie Beach can you see 74 legendary bands for the modest price of $3 each.
                                                   

And with the annual Airlie Beach Festival of Music set to feature big names like Leo Sayer, Glen Matlock (The Sex Pistols), The Baby Animals, Sneaky Sound System, Kate Ceberano and Shannon Noll - it doesn't get any better.

The best way to snap up this bargain is to book one and three day passes to the Airlie Beach Festival music before October 1 when the early bird special expires.

Tickets will cost $245 for full three days passes and $130 for a single day until the special ends.

Festival of Music founder Gavin Butlin said the deal was too good to miss.

"Let's just say you went to Brisbane and you saw the Baby Animals on Friday night, Leo Sayer on Saturday and Glen Matlock from the Sex Pistols on Sunday, you'd probably spend hundreds of dollars in tickets just to see those three, let alone the other 71 bands.

With 2017 marking the fifth Airlie Beach Festival of Music, it is already establishing a reputation as one of Australia's most popular boutique music festivals.

For festival fans across Australia wondering what the Whitsunday accommodation situation was looking like in the lead up to the big three day event, there is no need to fear.

One of the festival's accommodation partners is the recently refurbished Mantra Club Croc.

General manager Luke Harley said one third of the hotel's rooms have already been reserved for the festival's all-inclusive package deals.

Who’s in the Reading and Leeds Festivals 2017 line-up?

THE READING and Leeds Festival team have have been teasing fans with what - and who - to expect at this year's musical extravaganza.
                                                 

So who's on the line-up? And how long do we have to wait for the festival? Here's everything you need to know...

As the band hit their 20th year, Kasabian became the second group to announce their headlining slot at Reading and Leeds.

On February 24 it was confirmed that controversial rapper Eminem will be making a comeback to music with an appearance at Reading and Leeds.

It will be the first time the rapper has played the festival since 2013.

His hits include Lose Yourself, My Name Is, and Without Me - and his set-list could well include new material.

Stadium rockers Muse lead the first line-up announcement for this year's festivities.

This will be the band's third time headlining the festival, and promise to be a sight to be seen after becoming known for their iconic and grand stage performances.

Matt Bellamy, the lead singer of the band, has promised that there will also be "more news" about their plans for 2017 on top of their slot

They have been billed as a European exclusive for the show - meaning this performance will be a must-see for all die hard fans of the band.

After an incredible year hitting the charts with tracks including Lean On feat. MO, Cold Water feat. Justin Bieber and Light It Up feat Fuse ODG, Major Lazer are now bringing their dance anthems to this year's Reading and Leeds.

The American trio have been known as much loved artists for high A-Listers - with Beyonce sampling their track Pon De Floor for her feminist anthem Girls.

They have also become known for their light shows during performances - so it will be a spectacle to be seen.

The future of festivals

By their very nature, festivals take us outside of our everyday lives and actions. The combination of unique events and audiences looking for the unexpected becomes a catalyst for the extraordinary.
                                               

‘Why is it that we’re happy to sit in a room for 12 hours with some strange installation – which we would only do in a festival? There is something about the context that a festival creates that actually changes our behaviour,’ said Simon Abrahams, Creative Director & CEO of Melbourne Fringe at last month’s Creative State Summit in Melbourne.

Will the crowded arts calendar force some festivals out of the market? How will festivals adapt to the social-media accelerated fracturing of audiences into smaller and small sub-groups, and what impact will the ‘festivalisation’ of arts centres have on the festival landscape?

Georgie Meagher, Director/CEO of Next Wave, said the future of festivals was ‘de-colonial and anti-racist – a future of equality and inclusion, and a future where it’s not old, white, straight men in charge.’

Shaun Hossack, director of the street art festival Wall to Wall, held in the regional centre of Horsham, said the future of festivals was in ‘creating an entirely new audience in a regional area who never even knew that they were interested in art ... That’s the future of what Wall to Wall is – creating audiences and creating art lovers that never even knew they might be into [festival-going],’ he said.

A festival in a smaller town or city has the added benefit of changing the relationship between audience and artist away from the consumer model to one that positively impacts on the community’s lives, Hossack added.

Grass is Greener festival told to keep watch on foul language

POLICE will crack down on swear words at a popular dance music festival in October, ­according to internal Cairns Regional Council emails.
                                   

Melanie Selman and Gracie McArdle enjoy the music at The Grass is Greener Dance Festival Fogarty Park.
Correspondence to councillors from cultural services general manager Linda Kirchner stated the master of ceremonies at last year’s The Grass is Greener festival “clearly had inappropriate language usage for this site” and police would monitor language this time around.

The email, sent in May, also stated the number of punters allowed to attend the event at Fogarty Park was “a QFRS call”.

The statement seemed to fly in the face of Mayor Bob Manning’s recent statement to the Cairns Post that it was police who deemed the event could not expand from 5000 to 7000 attendees. But the council CEO John Andrejic explained that was not the case.

“QFRS was initially approached, and while they did not indicate any specific concerns relating to an increased crowd, they advised that, being an outdoor venue, police would be the determining authority,” he said.

Festival organisers earlier this week announced a venue change to the Cairns Showground.

Mr Andrejic said the former venue was close to the CBD and family-friendly areas so “appropriately, it is a condition of the use of Fogarty Park that language and general conduct is suitable for a family environment”.