Adriana Christianson; Regina Leader-Post

Despite lower funding from the private sector this year, Regina residents and visitors can look forward to more live entertainment and art displays at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival next month.

MP Ray Boughen was at the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre on Thursday to announce $10,000 in federal funding to support the community event set for May 18 to 23. This is the second year for the local arts festival to receive a grant from the Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Nils Clausson, festival chair, said guests can expect to see venues related to theatre, music, dance and visual art spread throughout the neighbourhood. Community members of all ages will have the chance to participate in cultural activities and share the talent of local artists.

The full budget for the festival is about $90,000 and it will take the work of nearly 300 volunteers to make the event a success. Clausson said the federal funding will ensure that programming in all areas can be maintained at the same level they were last year, despite a decrease in private funding, which was likely due to concerns over the economic downturn.

He noted the loss of a main festival venue with the sale of the Odd Fellow's Hall this year, but said in response to this, the committee decided to involve more local restaurants to host entertainment acts.

"On the Thursday night of festival week, Friday night and Saturday night, there will be live entertainment in all of the major restaurants in the Cathedral area," Clausson said. "We did this for Thursday night last year and it was quite successful, so we're expanding it."

Another innovative feature of the festival will be found in the garages of local residents. The donated spaces will be transformed into art galleries open to the public.

"Instead of having a formal art gallery, we thought it would be much more in the spirit of the festival and the involvement of the community to bring art out into the community," Clausson said, noting that 100 people visited one garage-turned-art gallery last year.

Boughen praised the community spirit involved in the festival and noted the possible economic spin-off for the event, which is expected to attract up to 35,000 people through the week. "These kinds of programs bring communities together, they also give young performing artists a platform on which to perform," he said, noting that events such as the festival are important to the continuation of culture across the country.