
Spur Festival Winnipeg is May 4-7, 2017. (EMILY CHRISTIE PHOTO)
An annual festival of politics, art, and ideas has a new theme this year: Risk.
“The mandate of the Spur festivals is to start the conversation, be it provocative, scary, silly, or all at the same time,” said Helen Walsh, Spur Festival director and publisher of the Literary Review of Canada.
“Too often dialogue becomes that buzzword we’re probably all tired off — “a social bubble” – talking to people who agree with us, without taking a hard look at the larger picture.”
The festival opens with a sunset film screening May 4 at Memorial Park of “Giants of Africa” with opening remarks by Leonard Monkman, founder of the Aboriginal Youth Opportunities’ 100 Basketballs initiative.
The remainder of the four-day festival will be spent on panel discussions, onstage interviews, movies, poetry, music, readings, a bike jam, and yoga. The event brings together provocative thinkers, scholars, authors, artists, activists and journalists to debate and explore the theme of Risk.
Some of the nearly a dozen subjects include the risks and journalism, indigenous perspective on Canada 150, art, health, crisis response and climate change & adverse weather.
Prices range from free to $25. Festival passes are also available.
Spur Festival Winnipeg runs May 4-7.