Arts and Culture
Every summer, usually in July, the largest music festival, the Island Music Fest on Vancouver Island takes place in the Comox Valley. Performers and audience members from near and far gather for three days of camping and an eclectic mix of music. There are several other festivals in the area and they include the North Island Festival of Performing Arts, Fiddlefest, Comox Valley Highland Games and the Comox Valley Piano Society puts on performances at the Stan Hagen Theatre.
The city is home to the Comox Valley Youth Music Centre, originally the Courtenay Youth Music Camp, a two week long annual summer school, which has increased to a six week program. Notable people involved with the centre include Harry Freedman who taught there 1971-1982, Gilles Bellemare (composition), Diana Krall (piano), Nancy Argenta (voice), Ingrid Jensen (trumpet) and Renee Rosnes (piano).
The Sid Williams Theatre, located in downtown Courtenay, is the major performance theatre in the Comox Valley. Other theatres include the Rainbow Youth Theatre, the Courtenay Little Theatre and the Stan Hagen Theatre.
The Vancouver Island Regional Library has a branch located in downtown Courtenay. The Courtenay branch offers many services such as free WIFI for library members, computer access, and printing and photocopying stations.
Read more about this topic: Courtenay, British Columbia
Famous quotes containing the words arts and, arts and/or culture:
“But here comes Generosity; giving—not to a decayed artist—but to the arts and sciences themselves.—See,—he builds ... whole schools and colleges for those who come after. Lord! how they will magnify his name!
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“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
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