Halfway up the river!
The crowdfunding campaign for the 2017 River Clyde Pageant has reached a major milestone in less than a week of its launch!
Megan Stewart and Ker Wells, co-directors of the River Clyde Pageant, are organizing the second event after the remarkable success of the first Pageant, which drew 100 community performers, artists and volunteers and an audience of 500 for three performances. They have set a $10,000 goal to raise money to cover the costs of the event. They were astonished by the widespread support for their crowdfunding campaign on Chuffed.org, which surpassed 30% of its fundraising target in under two days, and 50% in six days.
“The early success of the campaign is a reminder of the incredible enthusiasm, dedication and generosity of the community that showed up to participate and attend last year,” remarks Ker. “It reaffirms the importance of the Pageant, which brought together a diverse group of participants to create a celebratory performance about a tidal river that also addressed waterway issues concerning all Islanders.”
Last year’s River Clyde Pageant featured stilt walking great blue herons, a gigantic trout puppet operated by 7 children, a choir, a Mi’kmaq drum group, mermaids, trolls, and much more. Each performance concluded with a free community supper on the lawn of The Mill Restaurant, prepared by award-winning Chef Emily Wells. Ker and Megan are excited to bring back many of these much-loved characters in 2017, and introduce new elements to the performance.
“We have several guest artists coming to lead workshops to create new music and scenes – including a Jazz Funeral band for the river, puppets built from junk and found materials, and a script by community members in collaboration with professional playwright Michael Geither,” explains Megan.
To help raise the next portion of money to reach their $10,000 fundraising goal, Ker and Megan are encouraging people to contribute a donation of any size to the online campaign, which ends on March 31st. Local businesses such as Receiver Coffee, Upstreet Craft Brewing, The PEI Preserve Company, and YouMeal have come on board and are offering gift certificates as incentives for donors. All the money raised as part of the campaign goes towards workshop fees, materials, and costs for the post-show community suppers.
The fundraising campaign and video from last year’s Pageant can be viewed at: www.chuffed.org/project/river-clyde-pageant.