HURON COUNTY – Huron Waves Music Festival has extended the availability of the virtual program on its website and social media platforms due to its overwhelming popularity, with a whopping 13,000 viewers over the Christmas holidays.
Celebrate the Season with Huron Waves one-hour program will now be available for viewing online until at least the end of January, so don some comfy clothes and settle into the couch to immerse yourself in the sites and music from across Huron County.
“It’s a beautiful program that’s best enjoyed when people have the time to fully immerse themselves in the richness of sights and sounds of Huron County,” said John Miller, the Festival’s Artistic Director.
“We had no idea what to expect when we simulcast the one-hour program on internet social media platforms and cable television. We were ecstatic when we learned there were nearly 11,500 views on Facebook and 1,300 views on YouTube,” he said.
The program is narrated by award-winning actor Graham Greene who leads the audience through five creative segments, featuring Wingham-born cellist Thomas Beard performing at Hensall’s Iceculture; ballerina Antonella Martinelli, a member of the National Ballet of Canada Corps de Ballet, dancing in the family’s heritage barn in Hensall; The Hussey Family singing from Goderich’s Courthouse Park and joined virtually by the Newfoundland Deaf Choir from St. John’s; Goderich-born soprano Christina Bell and Wingham pianist Andrea Grant performing holiday favourites in a private home near St. Joseph; plus The Sunset Drummers, joined by youth dancers from south-western Ontario First Nations including the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, drumming and dancing down the sun on Lake Huron’s beach. It also features landscape photos by Exeter photographer Bonnie Sitter.
Huron Waves Music Festival’s virtual program comes after its planned premiere season was postponed and then cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ontario’s West Coast is currently promoting the practice hygge – a Danish word pronounced hue-gah or hoo-guh, that denotes a quality of coziness, contentment and well-being – and has posted the program on its website Huron Hygge, to help folks get into the spirit of hygge. Watch the program at facebook.com/huronwavesmusicfestival1, on YouTube Channel Huron Waves Music Festival, on huronwavesmusicfestival.ca and at Huron Hygge, ontarioswestcoast.ca/huronhygge.
Produced by FauxPop Media of Goderich, Celebrate the Season with Huron Waves is totally free to the public thanks to the generous support of its sponsors: Celebrate Ontario, White Squirrel Golf Club and Restaurant, Huron County Cultural Services, and Bruce Power. Private donations are welcomed to help with the costs of such an innovative initiative.
Huron Waves Music Festival has a mandate to showcase the best of Canadian and visiting international artists at an annual springtime music festival in our region. Huron Waves’ 2020 festival was originally scheduled for the first two weekends of May, but emergency measures initiated to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic twice delayed the festival. A full season of music is Huron Waves’ hope – and plan – for Spring, 2021.
Photo at top: Wingham-born cellist Thomas Beard performs at Iceculture in Hensall.