Festivals and football

Now here is something that you probably didn't know, I certainly didn't until I read an article in the 'Edmonton Journal' the other day: The City of Edmonton, apparently, has more festivals and outdoor exhibitions than any other city in the world. Now that is a big claim you must admit. In the world? Bigger than London, Rio, New York, Venice? It seems so. From April through to September, Alberta's capital city is home to more theatre, music, comedy, art, children's, literature and sports events than anywhere else. The comedy festival held down in Strathcona on the south side of town is second only to Edinburgh it seems and barely a week goes by without some sort of street fair or event. This is a good thing of course, as Edmonton is keen to show off on any number of subjects, from street entertainers to jazz, from new writers to old masters. Such is the plethora of events that you need your own personal assistant on hand 24/7 just to keep track of everything. Personally, I'm waiting for the 'great paving slabs of our times' exhibition to come along as surely it must - just about everything else is showcased it seems.

Of course, St. Albert, our home town, is not to be left out. There is plenty to see and do here during the summer as a recent trip to the St. Albert Children's Festival demonstrated. This was only slightly marred by the arrival of an unwelcome rain storm half way through the proceedings, but although it wet the exhibits, it did not dampen the enthusiasm. The festival consisted of activity tents for the kids to get involved in, with demonstrations of such things as juggling, bird-house making, mud castles, magic shows, music making and face-painting. There were also a lot of exhibits demonstrating Alberta's first nation heritage and even the army turned up with some of their vehicles for the children to crawl over. Thankfully, they had disarmed any missile firing capability as surely if anyone was to find the wrong button to push, it would be Eleanor. My personal favourite, and a popular attraction, was the human water fountain. This slightly barking individual dressed himself up as an office worker, sitting at his fully equipped desk and wired himself up to a water filled paddling pool. When a child sat on an adjacent static bicycle and pedalled, it 'switched' him on causing him to shoot jets of water from every place possible whilst miming an office phone call. It was bizarre, eccentric, wet but very funny.

Lately of course, Europe has been having it's very own football festival, the Euro 2008 Championships. This four-yearly event stirs up a cauldron of soccer mayhem in the UK and elsewhere but historically has gone by fairly unnoticed in North America. Until now that is. As I have mentioned before, football or soccer as it is known here, has been steadily growing in popularity and so I decided to do my bit for the cause by setting up an office sweepstake. I was pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm with which people were willing to part with their $5 for a chance to pick a team out of the hat, even if it wasn't matched by their knowledge of what they were actually doing or who the actual teams were. Are Brazil playing? asked my boss, failing to see the word 'Europe' in the details and 'I've got Italy - is that good? asked my Vietnamese colleague. 'Oooh, Poland', said my Canadian friend eagerly, her enthusiasm only waning when I said that a snowball had a better chance of surviving the fires of Hell than Poland had of winning. To everyone's credit and in a demonstration of team spirit, they all joined in without exception and every morning could be seen huddled around my wallchart to check on their teams progress, or overheard talking about the latest 4-4-2 formation. As I write this, only two teams are left and the anticipation is tangible. What has been really satisfying about this is the sense of pure fun everyone seems to have got out of it and the atmosphere it has generated. People have emailed me to say what a good idea it was and when can we do it again? We have ragged each other about our team's performances and discussed the finer points of penalty taking. Marvellous. After his team were eliminated in the early stages, my boss was overheard to say that he was as 'sick as a parrot'. I knew then, my work was truly done.....

The Rainmaker Rodeo

Naturally, as one is now living on the prairies, it is expected that sooner or later you will cross paths with the ranching fraternity that inhabit the open spaces surrounding Edmonton and St. Albert. Yes, this is horse country folks and I don't mean the inane section of society that believe chasing foxes in red coats is somehow a sporting thing to do. Nope, this is real horse country, where livestock are still rounded up by said beasts and you are not considered worthy to sit in a saddle unless you have a really big hat. To celebrate their farming heritage, the locals indulge in a spot of roping, racing and riding in a competitive environment known as a rodeo. Now, the Calgary stampede is the most famous rodeo in the world and Edmonton, although hosting the Canadian Rodeo finals, cannot compete with the sheer razamatazz of that event and sleepy St. Albert even less so. But that doesn't stop them trying, no sirree.

So once a year, the St. Albert Kinsmen, (no, the cross-burning pointy hat brigade are Klansmen OK?) a local round table type of charity host the Rainmaker Rodeo in our own backyard. This attracts cowboys (and girls naturally) from all over Alberta and adjacent regions to compete in a number of events such as bronco riding, steer roping and other manly cowboy crafts. Attached to the rodeo is a large funfair and several thousand places where you can purchase a hot dog. Of course, the Palmer family duly trotted along to indulge in a bit of whoopin' and hollerin' and to watch the always amusing sight of grown men being hurled around on the back of less-than-amused horses. The weather was clear, with a bit of a breeze with which to waft around the exclusive smell of horse dung and, taking advantage of the park and ride service from St. Albert Centre, we duly took our places high up on the temporary bleachers overlooking the arena. For a while the site of the various events was enough to keep Charlotte amused and Eleanor just did her own thing, which mainly consisted of eating french fries. It was a good show, but alas, we didn't get as far as my personal favourite event - the bull riding. It is to be expected that after some time sitting on a breezy bench watching another horseman will soon lead to fidgety 6-year olds and this proved to be the case. So we adjourned to the funfair and petting zoo for further entertainment.

Much fun was had by both children chasing chickens and elusive rabbits around the zoo and even Eleanor was bold enough to attempt to stroke the tame wallaby. Not an indigenous animal to Alberta it must be said. It was a while before we could persuade both of them to move on to other attractions. These mainly consisted of hair-raising rides that made Charlotte blanch at the sight of them, although we did get her on the dodgems (with me driving), the bumpy slide and fun-house. The time passed quickly and was a good way to spend a weekend afternoon even if the finer points of horsemanship were lost on the kids.

It also made me realise that St. Albert has a specific history, one separate from the more commercial and industrial Edmonton and that it is one peculiar to our adoptive country. It is essentially farming territory, mixing the traditional horse skills with the modern agricultural and having that cowboy edge that we previously only came into contact with from the movies. Although not in the same league as the desert states across the border, Canada has that understated link to the frontier so typical of the nature of the country. Although not quite ready to join the redneck fraternity, you do get a feeling that learning to ride a horse has more meaning out here than in the country lanes of England. Now, where are my spurs? Yeeeeehaaaa!