A year later, River Clyde Pageant plans to get on with the show

Organizers of the River Clyde Pageant in New Glasgow, P.E.I., are moving ahead with plans for performances and workshops that were cancelled last summer due to COVID-19.

It will be the fifth year for the outdoor pageant, known for its music, puppetry, stilt-walkers and performers of all ages.

Megan Stewart, the pageant's artistic director, said this year's show has been in the works since 2018 and, conveniently, already included cohorts.

"It's funny because it's a performance structure that aligns quite well with COVID protocols and … cohorts of audience members. And it's a structure that we've been imagining pre-COVID. So it works out."

It will be a processional format, where the audience, split into two groups, will see a series of scenes along the circuit, Stewart said in an interview with Mainstreet P.E.I. host Matt Rainnie. 

If the current COVID-19 protocols remain in place, the two audience groups would be no more than 50. That is down from the 160-200 audience members the pageant usually attracts.

But Stewart is just happy to be able to present the shows.

"To be able to be creative and to be creating with an audience in mind is just such a treat," she said. "So I'm really thrilled and I don't take any of it for granted either, because it was very different this time last year."

Plans are to present six shows over two weekends. The dates are July 23-25, and July 30-Aug. 1.

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