Point Douglas set to party all summer long

A Point Douglas park will be turned into a one-stop entertainment destination this summer.

SummerFest 2008 is a volunteer-driven event that organizers say will give many of the community’s children their first exposure to Winnipeg’s arts and cultural scene.

The festival kicks off on Sun., May 18, at the Joe Zuken Park amphitheatre, when James Keelaghan, Tracy Bone and J.C. Campbell perform. After that, the festival will run every Saturday until the end of August.

While some weeks will feature performances by the likes of Manitoba Theatre for Young People and Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, other events will focus on the environment and aboriginal heritage.

Martin Landy, the Point Douglas Residents Committee’s program manager, says the festival will show the community that the park is no longer a haven for drug dealers.

“We want to give people a chance to meet their neighbours in a safe place that’s theirs,” Landy says. “The program has multiple benefits, but the sense of community building is a big one.

“Most Point Douglas residents don’t own cabins to go to for the long weekends. They can’t do things that other people take for granted.”

Over the past three months, the residents committee has been joined by the North Point Douglas Women’s Centre, the Historical Society of Manitoba/Ross House Museum and the Manitoba Indian Cultural Education Centre in organizing SummerFest.

Elaine Bishop, executive director of the women’s centre, says some of the activities and performances will be an eye-opening experience for many of the neighbourhood’s children.

“One of the big limiting factors for many of these kids is if they can’t imagine things bigger their lives already are, they can’t achieve that,” Bishop says. “We’re bringing dreams into Point Douglas.”

Bishop adds there have been cases in other North American cities of using the arts — theatre and music in particular — as an alternative to keep kids away from drugs and gangs.

Landy says if SummerFest is a success, it could be eligible for federal funding in future years as an annual festival.

The organizers aren’t sure how many of Point Douglas’s 2,500 residents to expect at the first event, but they hope the turnouts grow steadily as word gets out about SummerFest.

“We’re hoping some people will come back who grew up in Point Douglas,” says Bishop. “There’s this sense that it’s this dangerous, dark place and we’re trying to change that perception.”

Landy recently moved to Point Douglas after living in the same Calgary neighbourhood for nearly two decades.

“After 18 years I knew about four of my neighbours,” he says. “After 5 1/2 months in Point Douglas I must know 150 people. Everyone has a sense of community here.

“We’re really working hard to make people feel pride in living here.”