Winnipeg International Children's Festival aka KIDSFEST Pivots to Bring Children's Entertainment to a Drive In!

For Immediate Release - May 13, 2021

For more than 30 years the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival (WICF) has hosted the annual Kidsfest event at the Forks during the early part of June. The four- day festival featured live performances, arts and crafts, visual displays, food trucks and more. The immersive, highly-popular experiences support families while introducing the art of magic and circuses to youth, and are essential to the mission and outreach of the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival.

As a result of the ongoing pandemic the WICF has chosen to pivot and find a way to reach the imaginations of young people once again in 2021.

The Winnipeg International Children’s Festival is proud to announce that we will be presenting live family programming as Kidsfest moves to a drive-in format from June 11 – 13, 2021. Kidsfest Drive-in presented by The Winnipeg Foundation, will take place at the Red River Ex grounds and offer two 90 minute shows (with intermission) on each of the three Festival days.

Performing artists will include Al Simmons, Splash ‘N Boots, The Street Circus Show, The Summer Bear Dance Troupe and hip-hop sensation Dammecia Hall in a safe, distanced environment with limited capacity. Attendees will receive individually pre- packaged take home activities such as science experiments and crafts provided by festival partners.

“We had been working toward doing a smaller live version of Kidsfest at The Forks with extreme safety protocols in place. The most recent restrictions caused us to find a new way to still offer the best family and children’s performers available – in a way that still offers a live performance experience with everyone’s safety maintained at the forefront. The Kidsfest Drive-In gives us a way to do that!”

- Kidsfest Artistic Director Neal Rempel

Segments of the show will be filmed for broadcast at a later date for all to enjoy! Full ticket details and protocols will be released in the coming weeks and can be found at www.kidsfest.ca. WICF Executive Producer: Neal Rempel

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