Another year of music and elephant mischief come and gone at the second annual Ed Fest.
Elephant Ed was just as playful and mischievous as ever, sauntering down 10 Ave. South, trying to sneak his truck into the vegetable stalls at the Farmer's Market, and snorting impatiently whenever his handlers tried to reign him in. The festival ran Sept. 6 and 7 in Rotary Park.
The 16-foot elephant puppet roamed the park and the neighbouring streets for the second year in a row, more life-like than ever. Local artist Marcel Dou Roig made some changes to make his truck and his body more mobile, so he could interact with the crowd more easily.
Ed was joined by a group of circus friends, including ringmaster Landon Elliott, bearded lady Sandy Ashby and strongwoman Wanda Sheridan, and whimsically dressed performers affiliated with the Light Revelry Lantern Crew and stilt performers with the Green Fools Circus.
He was driven by Dou Roig and Jerrod Bondy.
"The expectation for many people this year, was to have a full parade and I think that we delivered that with many characters. The puppet was more interactive than ever. We had more musicians this year," said Dou Roig.
"Every time that we turned we saw all the people following us. Seeing the kids excited and all the people being supportive, clapping. Just a lot of people trying to enjoy Ed as a beautiful symbol of freedom, art, creation. That's what we want to promote here in Cranbrook," he added.
Rotary Park was packed with people, and Elliott noticed that there was an even larger crowd than last year.
"When you do art festivals like this, it takes a few years to get them going. Last year, we had a good crowd, but Ed and I definitely had to push a lot more people out of the way today. It was great," he said.
"It's fun when you have a really good crowd to walk through because that gives more opportunities for interaction," Elliott added.
Live bands and musicians played from the Rotary Pavilion and the PPAS Community Stage for the entirety of the festival. Singer-songwriter Leonard Sumner and funk band Souls In Rhythm opened the festival on Friday night.
The Little Jazz Dixieland Orchestra, and rock band Half Spent took the stage on Saturday. Celtic rock group the Derina Harvey Ban closed out the evening.
Cranbrook Arts led a lantern parade on Friday night, that wound its way around the park to oom-pah style music played by the Dean Smith Trio. Attendees were able to create their own elephant-shaped twinkle lights out of old plastic jugs and patterned paper. Others brought handmade paper lanterns that they had crafted at a workshop for the Columbia Basin Culture Tour in August.
The winners of the Key City Theatre's Dreams Come True Raffle were announced at the end of the festival. Diane Lowther claimed tickets for Taylor Swift's Era's Tour in November at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, while Heather Hockley won $1,000 and Lori Hogg got a trip to Fairmont Hot Springs.
In total, the raffle raised $35,940, which will be used to help upgrade Key City Theatre to make it more accessible, including installing an elevator to the second floor.
UPDATED: Story has been updated to reflect that performers were from two different groups: Light Revelry Lantern Crew and Green Fools Circus
