Children’s festival bringing international shows, fairy-finding to St. Albert

The International Children's Festival of the Arts is promising to be even more magical this year.

The 45th edition of a St. Albert festival, dedicated to entertaining children with music, dance, visual art and laughter, is promising to bring more magic this year in its pursuit to keep up with interests of the time.

The International Children’s Festival of the Arts will, among other things, feature a new magic illusion show by performers from France to delight its anticipated 20,000-person turnout.

“We bring all sorts of international performances to town, specifically tailored for young people and their families, things that the whole family can actually enjoy together,” said co-ordinator Andrea Gammon.

“The tricky thing is because it’s for young people, the audience turns over all the time, and there’s always new things that really excite them, too. Trying to stay up with the interests of young people .. over time it’s grown as what started strictly as a theatre festival has grown and expanded to include visual arts and literary arts and dance and music.”

The festival’s iconic hero, Fizzlewit, will also take kids on an adventure to find fairies around the festival – a tradition that has grown over the last decade.

“With fairy-finding, we get out into the gardens … Everyone wanders around as a big group. You meet new friends,” he said.

The International Children’s Festival runs from Friday to Monday. More information can be found online.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brandon Lynch