‘Feels very much like it did pre-COVID’: Kaleido Fest wraps up 20th year

Organizers are celebrating a successful Kaleido Family Arts Festival as it wrapped up its 20th year. More than 800 artists took part this year.

After welcoming thousands to the Alberta Avenue Arts District, Kaleido Family Arts Festival organizer Christy Morin says this year’s event feels very much like it did before the pandemic.

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“It seems like our visitors are coming back, our artists are coming back … and we are just so excited,” said Morin.

“We are so grateful that our hearts are glowing,” she said, fitting with this year’s theme: hearts-a-glowin’.

The festival saw some 800 artists from across the province participate in different mediums including music, theatre, dance, street performances and visual art.

Morin called Kaleido a “homecoming” to the neighbourhood, which is often forgotten or neglected.

“So many times, this neighbourhood’s sort of been a place of forgetfulness, that people don’t want to come down here, but to actually see what’s really happening … is what warms my heart,” Morin told CTV News Edmonton.

On top of its regular, wacky programming, this year’s festival hosted a Filipino cultural pavilion as well as three-on-three basketball.

“If you come to 118 Avenue during the festival, it’s truly welcoming. It’s joyful, it’s excitement,” said Morin.

Kaleido Fest ran from Sept. 5 to 7.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Marek Tkach