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We’ve been raving about this four-day festival all year. Last week, the 2010 edition took over the city with over 200 bands at just under 25 venues throughout the downtown core and surrounding areas. This collaborative nature, intended to help festival goers “Discover a Live Calgary”, has helped Sled Island to become a staple event in Calgary’s summer festival line-up.

Although I attended in 2009, I opted out this year due to the ticket price doubling. Instead, I decided to check out the Young Buds shows. When I showed up at the Young Buds Kick Off & Smash-Up Derby, I guess I was expecting to find a bunch of teens who couldn’t go to the 18+ shows ready and waiting to rock out to some bands who had  graciously agreed to play for a younger crowd. As such, I was a bit disappointed when I showed up late to an fairly empty Cantos Foundation. The room was populated by what seemed like pre-teens and their moms. An awkward viewing experience followed.

However, Kids Up Front, a charitable organization that “provides access to arts, culture, sport and recreation for children who otherwise do not have the opportunity”, ’saved the day’, and graciously provided donated, unused tickets to the mainstage events on Friday and Saturday. Thanks to them, three of us were able to attend the festivities and have a wicked few days.

Conclusion: I would greatly appreciate it if Sled Island would work on its youth-friendliness. Although mainstage is all-ages, the tickets are ridiculously expensive, making it inaccessible for many of us. I appreciate that the 18+ crowd wants to consume alcohol in peace, but I think a big part of fostering an engaged youth community is treating them like the ‘apprentice adults’ that they are.

We’ll be bringing you more posts over the coming days about the great bands that played, and we may even have an interview in store for you. Stay tuned.

Usually you’ll find Shot At The Dark bringing you “Acoustic video recordings of your favorite and hidden musical talents in our amazing city” over at Calgary Is Awesome. Recently they shot Hannah Georgas in an abandoned farmhouse, and Said the Whale along 7th Avenue. But this weekend, they’re looking to shoot you.

Comrad Sound was starting up as The New Black was having issues with the city earlier this year. Then, The New Black recovered and we had two wonderful all-ages spaces co-existing. Now Comrad Sound is running into similar issues with zoning and licensing, and young people around Calgary are trying to do something about it. Random Task Collective, who have spearheaded the Young Buds events at Sled Island have a call to action here.

All-ages venues are important to us, and to the Calgary community at large. Comrad has hosted a vast array of events for youth, and plan to continue to do so – minus the shows. But they were set to host some Young Buds shows next week. It’s a shame that Comrad will be missing a great opportunity to showcase their space to more youth in Calgary. However, the law is the law and Comrad didn’t quite get it right. But here’s hoping that with enough attention, these experiences can be something to learn from, and a stepping stone towards more positive relationships between all-ages venues and the City of Calgary.

Calgary City Parks aren’t the only things turning 100 this year – Chinatown will also be celebrating a century of existence with celebratory events taking place from June through August.

Coming up quickly on Saturday June 19th, the United Calgary Chinese & Calgary Chinese Elderly Citizens Associations will be hosting a Stampede Breakfast. Food will be served from 9 – 11 a.m, accompanied by a stage performance until 12pm. You’ll find the food and festivities at “the heart of Chinatown” – 3 Avenue S.E. Calgary.

You can check out the rest of the events here.

The City of Calgary is encouraging its citizens to celebrate their natural resources in a new way. The Celebration of the Bow River 2010 features six artists who are each putting on an event to highlight “connection to the river” and “create opportunities for citizens to further appreciate and protect” the Bow.

On June 12, Peter Von Tisenhausen will be holding his event, launching 100 hand-carved boats into the river. From 10am to 4pm on Saturday in Douglasburn Park, you are invited to join in the experience, and consider connections between “life and water cycles, stewardship, consciousness and spirit”. For more information on artists and events, check out the website.

“On Monday April 12, 2010, The City of Calgary Parks was proclamated by City Council for 100 years”

In celebration, the City of Calgary is bringing you a bunch of neat programming for the summer. They’ve got a geocaching challenge going on (no GPS, no problem – head to the library), and will be hosting free concerts in parks across the city. The first concert features Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, the Ramblin’ Ambassadors, and Camie Leard in Baker Park on June 20th. And those weird orange poles in Olympic Plaza? That’s just one of six installations of “Landscapes of Celebration”. For more information about the goings-on, check out the Facebook page.

I received this e-mail from the Calgary Urban Agriculture group and wanted to pass it along:

“The Calgary Food Policy Council invites you to the 2nd annual Calgary Food Policy Council Downtown Community Garden Planting Days! Help us to transform four planter boxes on Barclay Parade into beautiful and productive urban gardens full of vegetables and edible flowers. The produce we grow will be donated to food assistance organizations in Calgary. The garden we create together will be a space to celebrate and cultivate a sustainable food future for Calgary! We’ll be planting Saturday and Sunday May 29th and 30th starting at 1:00pm, 3rd Street SW between 5th and 6th Avenue SW. Drop by and help contribute to a better Calgary, learn a little about food gardening, and have a great time!”

Last year the vegetables from the Downtown Community Garden went to the Drop-In Centre, and they were the only fresh vegetables they’d had all year. This would be a great way to spend the weekend!

We posted a number of months ago about some nasty chemicals you can run into while using personal care products. Recently, I received an e-mail from the David Suzuki Foundation asking me to complete a survey of toxic ingredients in cosmetics. Essentially, you find some care products that you use on a daily basis, check them for any of the “dirty dozen” chemicals, submit some demographic info, and get entered into a draw for some prizes. Neat-o.

What struck me about the survey is that they thank you for “participating in…important research”. But getting web-users to do “research” for you doesn’t seem entirely solid. If I had wanted to, I could’ve checked off that my cleanser had all 12 of the ingredients they’re looking for, and spoiled the study (I didn’t, by the way). That’s a bit sketchy for such a well-known organization. It seems more likely to me that they’re enticing individuals to take a look through their care ingredients, and realize what they’re absorbing through their skin, without directly asking them to do so. Kind of smart. But hey, I’m also a cynic, and maybe they’re just killing two birds with one stone.

In any case, I’m not sure how I feel about studies like these. One of the prize packs includes a copy of “Slow Death By Rubber Duck“, a best-selling Canadian book, which looks at how the toxins in products “make their way inside us” and what impact they have on our health. The description of the book itself reads: “We cannot see it; we often have trouble measuring it and it is very difficult assigning specific damage to chemicals that are so widely used. But the alarm bells are starting to sound.” For these reasons, attempts to point out the dangers of such toxins has often be accused of inciting “environmental alarmism”. To some degree, this is in defence of a pretty heartless industry, but when the best even the Suzuki Foundation and the Diamond Environmental Research Group can say is that toxins “may” or have “potential to” cause damage, you have to wonder how concerned you should be.

Speaking personally, I don’t use many beauty/care products aside from the standard shampoo/conditioner/soap. But those are for social, not scientific, reasons. What about you guys? Are there specific ingredients you look out for when buying household cosmetics cleaning supplies?

Unrelated side-note: The City of Calgary released an iPod/Phone app for the Public Art Program. Check it out.

We’re getting closer to summer and the end of school, and that means festival season is starting up. Last night, the Calgary International Folk Festival surprised me by releasing their full 2010 artist line-up a day early, after 17 weeks of weekly artist reveals.

I had been anticipating this release ever since St. Vincent was announced to be playing one of the mainstage shows. The full list certainly hasn’t disappointed me. The 68-artist list includes one of my all-time favourite Canadian bands, Stars, who had seemingly skipped over Calgary in their tour this year, and who will also be playing a mainstage show.

The Folk Fest is one of the most affordable summer festivals, selling student passes for the entire weekend at only $85. But if that’s pushing it, there’s still time to sign up to volunteer and get free entrance to the shows.

Last week I mentioned a national art contest for youth hosted by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This week I bring you three more contests, this time a little closer to home.

Sled Island is an “annual independent multi-venue music and arts festival” held right here in Calgary, and we here at YAA are big fans. Not only do they put on a great show each year, but they work year-round to be involved in the community, and they love to support awesome youth. Each year Sled Island hosts a “Create-a-Poster” contest for high school students. It works like this: You make a poster with information about the festival on it. You print copies of the poster. You put them up around the city. You take a picture of your poster hanging up. You submit it. This way, there’s loads of free publicity for both you and your work, and the festival. Ten finalists win a pass to the festival, and a wristband for the Young Buds Stage. The contest is open until the 15th of June, and you can find out more important details in the Facebook release.

But if you want to perform at Sled Island rather than advertise for it, then the search for the “best teenage rock band in Southern Alberta” might be for you. The Homestretch on CBC Radio One is asking young bands to simply create a profile on CBC Radio 3, submit a photo and an original song, and then e-mail them. The winning band will get a pretty sweet prize package, including the opportunity to perform live on CBC Radio One and at Sled Island. There are only 12 submissions so far, but the deadline is fast approaching, so check out the rules and get your submissions in before May 14th.

The last contest deadline is also coming up quickly. Radio station X92.9 is looking for an awesome album cover for the Xposure 2010 CD, and needs submissions in by May 21st. The winning designer gets $2500, which they suggest you might want to use to pay for school. Check out the rules and details on their blog.

Good luck!

If you didn’t already know, Canada is well on its way to having its very own human rights museum. Construction of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) started in 2008 and will open for business in 2012. The museum has stressed the importance of educating young people especially, so it’s only suiting that they’re holding an art contest for youth in partnership with Taking IT Global (TIG).

The contest, called Evoke, aims to give youth a medium through which to reflect on the past, present, and future potential of human rights movements and events. Open to youth aged 13-25, the contest will be open for submissions until the 25th of May. 13 winners will be chosen (one from each province/territory) and will be given the opportunity to travel to Winnipeg this summer to have their art exhibited during a ceremony for the CMHR.

For more info on submitting to the art contest, head here. If you’re interested in learning more about the museum, head to their website and check out the live construction feed. If there’s no construction going on in the evening, you can always watch the skaters in the skater park!

I posted previously about a number of events going on throughout Calgary to honour Earth Day. Well, today’s the day, and while you’re out hugging trees you may as well take advantage of these other cool happenings as well.

Higher Ground, an awesome café I’ve also blogged, is offering free coffee (or tea) for anyone who brings in a reusable travel mug, and will be selling their own travel mugs for nearly half-off. They’re also participating in the David Suzuki Foundation “Earth Week Book Swap” and will have a table set up from 6PM-8PM for anyone wanting to leave a book and take a book, and free coffee and tea for those who participate. Finally, as it’s a Thursday, they will be having their third Vegetarian Night of this month. Part of the menu tonight: “Pumpkin cake with chocolate-hazelnut ganache & organic cinnamon coffee sauce”. If that doesn’t get your mouth watering..

In any case, enjoy your day and your surroundings, and take it upon yourself to show the trees some love.

The Calgary Youth Foundation, one of CYFC’s many programs, is a group of youth volunteers responsible for distributing grants to “youth-driven projects” during two granting cycles a year. In the November cycle, local all-ages venue Comrad Sound was given a grant to help renovate their space to be more readily usable by the Calgary youth community.

Comrad Sound is run by an all-star volunteer team that has included members from other local projects and events such as Sled Island and Imaginary Ordinary, and offers its venue for a wide array of activities that enable the community to share “music, art, knowledge, and skills”.

Their website features a calendar packed with opportunities for youth throughout the city to get together and interact. One of the more interesting events on the April calendar is the book, music, movies, and video games sale. Basically an open-ended communal garage sale for youth that will be happening all-day this Saturday, April 17th.

And those of you following our Perspective series will be interested in the two photography workshops taking place on Sunday April 18th and 25th, and led by local photographers Randy Gibson (he’s done work for Sled Island, The Uptown, and FFWD) and Stalman (he took these for us). At $5 it’s a really neat way to brush up on your photography skills from some of the local best, and hang out with some other youth with similar interests. To register, fire them an e-mail at class[at]rgibsonphoto.com.

But if you can’t make it out this month, keep your eyes peeled for a new line-up of events in May.

Earth Day is still a couple of weeks away, but the City of Calgary is supporting a number of events throughout the month to help you “make every day Earth Day”. One of the first goings-on this month is “Down to Earth Week“, an event “showcasing the best in local food & responsible business”, and put on by the non-profit REAP Calgary which will run until April 11th.

They are encouraging Calgarians to dine at a number of local restaurants during the week which serve cuisine crafted from local ingredients, including The Coup on 17th and the more up-scale River Café on Prince’s Island Park. The week will conclude with Food For Thought at the Uptown, which for $15 will get you an evening composed of a local & sustainable dinner, a screening of Food Fight, and a follow-up party in the Marquee, for those who are of legal drinking age.

There are a number of other events and promotions going on before the 22nd, which you can find more about on the City website.

If you’re looking for something to do this Saturday, consider dropping by the Community Garden Benefit Concert at the South Calgary Community Hall. For $10 you can enjoy performances by local artists, refreshments, and a silent auction, all in the name of locally-grown food and community building.

For more local events promoting positive social change in Calgary, check out the Facebook page.