Show must go on for NDG Arts Week after powerful storm
Mid-festival move to Trenholme Park called 'roller coaster moment' by organizers
A tree fell in the exact spot slated for NDG Arts Week's Biergarten in Girouard Park Tuesday, but organizers refused to see it as a sign to scrap their festival.
The team behind the annual event held an emergency meeting at Shaika Café, across the street from the devastated festival site, and decided the show would go on.
The festival started Monday and finding an 11th-hour locale which hadn't been affected by Tuesday's destructive winds was a "roller coaster moment," executive director Luca Palladino said.
To relocate the festival, the team found Trenholme Park, located above Maisonneuve Boulevard, between Loyola Campus and Cavendish Boulevard, on the western side of NDG.
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"I was awake at 5 a.m. looking at other spots to do this in," Palladino said. "We're running on steam, we're running on empty, but we're still running."
Boosting arts in the borough
Palladino said the free events are a way of working towards creating a "critical mass around arts and culture in NDG."
Most of the festival's activities are still on after its rough start, including two of its main ones — the eighth annual NDG Off the Wall outdoor screening, featuring documentaries with a strong NDG connection, and a concert on Saturday.
The festival is free thanks to contributions from the borough, Montreal 375 and two local funding bodies.
To help cover the costs of the destruction in the original park there will be a crowdfunding campaign Saturday.
The festival runs until Aug. 27. For more details, visit the festival website.