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Indy and Edmonton arts community look for common ground

Do artists hate the Indy?

Visual and dance artist Saski Aarts isn’t exactly warm towards the race, which takes place at City Centre Airport from July 22-24.

For starters, she says she’s been woken up in past years by the mosquito-like sounds of the race cars even though she says she lives more than three kilometres from the track.

But this year Race Week Edmonton, a new festival that’s intended to expand interest in the race outside the raceway gates, includes arts and musical events.

To Aarts’ delight, a last-minute addition to the festival schedule includes burlesque shows by New York-based Angie Pontani and the Pontani sisters that are running Thursday-Sunday at the Roxy Theatre.

The troupe will also perform a more family-friendly version of their act on the Race Week Edmonton main stage located on Rice Howard Way from Thursday to Saturday.

“For the first time, I’m going to something connected to the Indy,” says Aarts.

Tamara Fahlman, communications director for the Edmonton Indy, says race organizer Octane Motorsports wants the new festival to replicate the excitement and atmosphere that exists at the annual Formula 1 race the company also manages in Montreal.

“From Octane’s perspective, it’s not just about the race,” Fahlman explains. “We really wanted to bring the F-1 feel to Edmonton.”

“When we met with the mayor in the fall, he was admamant that he didn’t just want this to be about the track.”

Before last year, artists were mostly indifferent to the Indy. That morphed into bitterness in 2010 when Edmonton Folk Festival organizers expressed dismay that the race, which reportedly lost $9.2 million over 2008 and 2009, was approved for $821,250 in marketing funding from the two-year federal Marquee Tourism Events Program.

The race had also been approved the previous year for $399,314 from the program, while the Folk Festival was denied funding both years and had and hoped to use the cash to market itself in the U.S.

The Edmonton Fringe got $414,300 in 2009 but was also shut out in 2010.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said at the time that the funding was being limited to two events per city in each year. The other recipient in Edmonton in 2010 was the Edmonton Eskimos, which received $425,914 to market the 2010 Grey Cup.

“It just seems in this city, arts always take a back seat to sports,” says Wolfjunge, a dancer and fire performer, who rejects the argument that the majority of Edmonton’s population prefer sports.

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