After a five year hiatus, the ArtsWells festival will once again take place this year between August 2nd and the 4th.
Elyssia Sasaki, the Executive Artistic Director for Island Mountain Arts, says they are excited to host a smaller more intimate gathering.
“I think that we’re looking at a total of 6-7 venues altogether as opposed to 14. We’re pretty condensed to the town site of Wells this year. There are less bands but more opportunities to see them because everybody is going to be playing a couple sets.”
Sasaki says there will also be fewer people.
“There are also fewer tickets that are going to be for sale. I would say than in its heyday ArtsWells made it up to around 25 hundred people. We’re looking at a gathering with volunteers, artists and everything all in just over the one thousand mark.”
Here, she talks about why they took some time off.
“When the festival went on hiatus in 20202 there was also a huge organizational shift. I took over the position of Executive Artistic Director from my predecessor Julie Fowler, and I think it was something that I got a lot of feedback on in the early days in my role, just about wanting to see the festival come back but recognizing that parts of it may have gotten a little too big for town.”
Sasaki says there was also a lot of change happening in Wells with the Osisko Gold project which also changes the way they are doing things.
As for if it will get bigger down the road, she says “it will be a continued conversation with the community.
“We did a feedback survey that went out I believe in 2022, and the results were released in early 2023. It asked the community, Bowron, the participating sort of areas that use Wells as a home base questions about the festival and the resounding answer that we got back from that is that folks wanted to see something that felt smaller, which potentially could be a little bit more sustainable for the town in the future.”
Sasaki says this year’s festival will also feature theater, visual arts, screenings, and workshops.
She also hints at some new things this year.
Sasaki says tickets can be found on their website, with volunteer and vendor opportunities opening soon.
She says they did hold two mid sized concerts last year, the tree planters ball and a prom night, which showed that the community was getting more and more comfortable with hosting larger gatherings once again.