The MasqueParade is finally here.
On Saturday night Snow King and Lady Spring will descend from the mountains to join the crowd in Spirit Square.
The combination of several unique events this year will surely make this weekend’s MasqueParade one to remember.
The Masque Costume Ball
Dress up or come as you are to the Masque Costume Ball, which takes place at the Rec Plex on Friday, February 18th at 7:30 pm.
Bill Usher, Executive Director of Kicking Horse Culture, said the two bands playing at the event, Retrofied and The Bad Uglies, have been rehearsing non-stop to ensure that you’ll be dancing all night long.
The ball will also feature cameo guest performances from Travis Pickering, Suzie Raudaschl, Usher himself, Jane Fearing, the GSS Drama Club and more. There will also be costume prizes. Tickets are $20 (member discounts apply) and are available at the Art Gallery of Golden, Moon River Gift Gallery, The Golden Dollar Store, Elite Nutrition and Lori Baxendale Formals.
MasqueParade
Gather in Spirit Square before 6:30 in order to be on time for the Snow King and Lady Spring’s arrival. Everyone is invited to bring lanterns and wear their masks or costumes.
“There really is no division between the performance and audience,” said Usher. “The audience is the performance.”
Usher didn’t want to give too many of the details away, but he did let it slip that there will be a crowd wolf howl to go along with this year’s theme “Marvelous Night for a Moondance”.
The moon will be just about full, too.
Kumsheen Carnival
After the Pageant, Snow King & Lady Spring will Parade everyone along the lantern-lit river to Kumsheen Park (across from the Cinema) for a snow, fire and fireworks carnival.
A new element added to this year’s MasqueParade is the “King’s Cake”: a pastry and almond cake big enough to feed over 200 people, with one, little bean baked in the middle. The person who finds it will be “king” or “queen” for the year.
Nathalie Callede Degas, a MasqueParade volunteer, explained that it is an old European tradition that still exists today. She said that it was customary to choose a man to be the “sacred king” of the tribe for a year in pre-Christian religions of Western Europe. That man would be treated like a king for the year, then he would be sacrificed, and his blood returned to the soil to ensure that the harvest would be successful.
Degas promises that there will be no sacrificing. A big thanks goes out to Hugo Desnoyers and his GSS students for baking the cake.
