The annual Victoria Symphony Splash is expanding to be a bigger event, the “Splash Around Town” festival.
Traditionally the symphony plays one concert every summer on a barge in Victoria’s inner harbour. That will not be happening this year.
“This year for some technical reasons we weren’t able to build the stage on the barge, so we decided to go bigger,” Matthew White, chief executive officer of the Victoria Symphony, said.
The splash is expanding to a 10-day event with concerts based throughout the city, including the Royal Theatre, Christ Church Cathedral and the Atrium on Yates.
There will also be a small, free concert series at the Cameron Bandshell in Beacon Hill Park, with a variety of music genres.
“It’s much more diverse in terms of music,” Joey Pietraroia, associate conductor with the symphony, said. “That will be folk music, some singer/songwriters, some jazz, some Celtic. So I think there will be something for everyone.”
Having a variety of nights and music genres gives the orchestra the opportunity to perform a fuller repertoire and bring in special guests, according to White.
Jazz singer Dee Daniels is joining the orchestra during its opening night performance on Friday and the Steven Page Trio joins on July 31.
“There’s a special, wonderful energy to be able to share the stage as a unit with an orchestra,” said Daniels.
The performance on July 31, which would normally take place on a barge, will instead be played on a stage on the lawn of the B.C. Legislature. It will include a free day of programming.
“We will have food vendors, we’re going to have fireworks and there’s going to be a kids zone. It’s going to be a real festival,” White said.
He said it was important to extend the festival and bring more options to remind people how important gathering together for music is to building community.
“We wanted to remind people that we’ve got this incredible group of artists, the symphony here, that are resident, and remind people how important they are to civic life here and how lucky we are to have such an amazing group of artists and musicians living here,” said White.
He hopes the Splash Around Town festival will replace the previous one-day event going forward.
A full schedule of events is posted on the Victoria Symphony website.
Mackenzie Read
