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"We are such a young city, we're going to go up. I still feel like we're at the beginning of something. This is the best time."

- Christie Peters, co-owner of The Hollows (via Hemispheres)

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eBulletin - May 2013

Complete 2013 Jazz Festival program announced

The complete line-up of ticketed and free shows for the 2013 SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival was announced at the beginning of May. And it’s sure to be one of the best festivals in the event’s history.

In addition to previously announced TD Mainstage artists such as City and Colour, Metric, Herbie Hancock, Dr. John & The Nite Trippers, Colin James and Serena Ryder, the Festival has added shows by Jimmie Vaughan, Michael Franti & Spearhead, and Ziggy Marley.

You can check out the list of artists from A–Z and the ticketed schedule on our website.

The Broadway Theatre and The Bassment have become a mecca for exceptional jazz artists and puts the Jazz in Jazz Festival. The all-star lineup includes John Scofield Uberjam, David Murray Infinity Quartet with Macy Gray, and upcoming jazz starlet, Nikki Yanofsky.

The Groove Series is the late option for those night owls that love the funk, soul, and indie music scene. With Juno nominees Yukon Blonde, soul master Lee Fields, and hip-hop, jazz fusion The Herbaliser you'll figure out why we call it the Groove Series!

Also, be sure to check out the Free Stage Schedule! You will find all kinds of hidden jems and free stage favorites like Five Alarm Funk, Royal Wood, Wil Campa, Red Baraat, and Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet to name a few. Also, take in the sights and sounds of the Festival marketplace or enjoy the tastes of the many food vendors.

Media information can be accessed at the Festival website.

The SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival dates are June 21 - July 1.

Source: SaskTel Saskatchewan Jazz Festival

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Family fun in Saskatoon

Forestry Farm ideal for kids of all ages
BY JENN SHARP, THE STARPHOENIX

Jessica Foster and her children, aged 6, 3 and 1, love the Saskatoon Forestry Farm so much they visit several times a week during the summer. Besides the animals and an awesome playground, Foster says the attraction lies in the fact so many other families also visit. It’s a place where kids can be kids, where they can use their imaginations and enjoy the outdoors. There’s no fear of requests for screen time when you’re running with the wolves.

Q: How often do you visit the Forestry Farm with your family?
A: We definitely go there more in the warmer months. During the winter we always take in the festival of lights (BHP Billiton Enchanted Forest Holiday Light Tour). My girls just go crazy for that. We probably go there a couple of times just for that. In the fall and in the spring we’ll start going once or twice a week and in the summer we go two or three times a week.

Q: Why do like taking your children there?
A: First of all, it’s a very easygoing place to take kids. The kids can run around and be excited and it’s socially acceptable there. There are lots of other parents there so it’s a good place for parents and kids to get out without having to worry about any rules. My kids love the train ride through the zoo. We always take it. As my girls get older, they really like the animals that get to wander around, like the peacocks, the chickens and the ducks.

Q: Are your girls at a fun age for the zoo?
A: The zoo’s a good place for everybody. My one-year-old can walk or be in the stroller. My six-year-old really likes the wolves now. She can run back and forth in front of their cage and they’ll run with her. It’s really easy for me. Everybody’s got something to look at or make animal sounds to — it’s good for all ages.

Q: What are some of your other favourite things to do there?
A: We love the bigger animals — the bears, the wolves, the lions. And then the babies. We all love watching the babies come in the springtime. I read that the mountain goats are having babies now. We also like to stay in the park afterwards. They have a big wonderful park area outside the zoo. It’s unlike any other park in Saskatoon. It’s huge. It has lots of different things and it’s more modern. It doesn’t have any swings — it’s a climbing/activity park with a big roller slide, ramps and a big rocking boat. That’s how I usually bribe the kids to get out of the zoo part (laughing).

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Exploring the WDM through the eyes of a child
BY JENN SHARP, THE STARPHOENIX

Adele Bandet’s three sons all share a favourite place in Saskatoon: The Western Development Museum at 2610 Lorne Avenue South. Merrek, 9, and Zander, aged 8, both visit with their school every year, but coax their mom into bringing them as often as she can. The busy mom runs a daycare out of her home in the north end and doesn’t make it down to WDM as much as the boys would like but when they’re here they make the most of it. 
WDM’s 1910 Boomtown is a big draw for the boys who say they love to run along the wooden sidewalks and explore the pioneer-era house, general store and dentist’s office. They also enjoy playing scavenger-hunt type games amongst the antique farm machinery and automobiles. The two were happy to talk to Bridges about what makes WDM special to them. Their younger brother, Kynyn (5) was too shy to talk but readily posed for the camera.
Q: How often do you come here with your family Zander?
A: Not as much as I’d like to.

Q: Why do you like coming here Merrek?
A: Because there are old trains and old houses. My favourite part of the Western Development Museum is the old-fashioned movie. And you get to go on a big train — I like seeing the view and going inside.

Q: Do you have any fun memories here?
A: Merrek: There’s one fun thing — you have to spot a monkey and we spotted it! (The clue said) it was on a tractor or a train. We had to write it down on a piece of paper (when we found it).

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Canoeing and painting in the wild

BY CLIFF SPEER, CANOESKI DISCOVERY CO.

Canoeing and painting go hand in hand with mystery and adventure in Canada’s northland. The ancient rock paintings on the rough canvas of the Canadian Shield are shrouded in mystery. Nobody really knows who created them and why. We have analyzed their indelible qualities and have an idea how the rock paintings have managed to last for centuries. We know that canoeing was the means for their creation. On Saskatchewan’s Churchill River that involved adventurous wilderness travel across large unprotected lakes, negotiating currents and rapids and hauling over rigorous portages.

But the mystery and adventure involving canoeing and painting doesn’t start or end with the early Aboriginal artists. Taking a historical leap forward to the early 20th century, we encounter a famous canoeist painter whose untimely death is still the subject of an unsolved mystery. Tom Thomson, revered artist associated with the prestigious Group of Seven painters, was an experienced canoeist and park ranger, and at age 39 he inexplicably drowned, was murdered, committed suicide, or succumbed to a fatal struggle all while canoeing in Algonquin Park, ironically on Canoe Lake! Thomson devotees are still trying to unravel the mystery of his demise, close to 100 years after.

However, in 2013 it’s the mystery of artistic expression that joins the adventure and romance of the Canadian wilderness in an exciting new canoeing and painting trip by CanoeSki. What’s up? Well, we’re taking a group of painters by canoe to a secluded wilderness retreat on a small remote lake in northern Saskatchewan. From base camp we’ll do daily paddling jaunts to scenic locations with prime painting potential. The camp is located a few air miles north of La Ronge in beautiful Lac La Ronge Provincial Park and is otherwise only accessible by boat. The landscape consists of small waterways with rocky outcrops, and boreal forest typical of the Canadian Shield wilderness that once inspired artistic titans like Tom Thomson. It is bursting with stunning virtual paintings waiting to be actualized!

Most of the time will be dedicated to creating art, but other diversions are available at the camp besides canoeing, like swimming, hiking, fishing, etc. All details on the canoeing and painting trip are posted on the CanoeSki site at Canoeing and Painting in the Wild.

Source: CanoeSki Discovery Co.

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Saskatoon welcomes Travel Media Association of Canada

With less than one month until the 2013 Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC) Conference and AGM, the local host committee is busy putting the finishing touches on what is sure to be an unforgettable event.

We look forward to sharing our beautiful city with all the wonderful TMAC delegates.

Some of our local experiences may be affected by a longer than usual winter season in Saskatoon. But fear not – we have a backup plan! Read all about here.  

Follow the story on Twitter (@TMACyxe2013) and Tumblr for the latest information on the 2013 conference and Saskatoon events.

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Saskaboom

BY MICHAEL KAPLAN, HEMISPHERES

From the air, Saskatoon looks like a postage stamp, a tiny patch of color on a vast brown envelope. The largest city in Saskatchewan, a province in Western Canada that covers some 250,000 square miles of prairie, Saskatoon has long represented the kind of nice-enough backwater settlement where the locals smile at you for no reason and the kids leave home at the earliest opportunity.

From the ground, too, Saskatoon seems a perfectly run-of-the-mill North American enclave. A river flows languidly through the city center. A couple of old-school movie theaters keep the locals entertained. There’s a casual bar called Flint that everybody seems to hit sooner or later. And if you need a new suit, you buy one from Atch & Co., owned by Saskatoon’s mayor, Don Atchison.

That’s how Saskatoon has been for as long as anyone can remember. But walk its streets today, and you catch glimpses of something new emerging. On Broadway, across from the beer-and-shot joint Bud’s, you’ll find Weczeria, a swanky French eatery where the wine list has featured a “Bordeaux-inspired” red at $175 a pop. Nearby is The James Hotel, a boutique establishment whose “luxurious and progressive” lounge is invariably jammed with patrons who appear to have been plucked out of Brooklyn.

The James opened in late 2011, roughly five years after the onset of what has been dubbed the “Saskaboom”—a period of double-digit growth that has left this blue-collar city with the feel, if not quite the look, of a miniature, chillier Dubai. Saskatoon is now the fastest-growing city in Canada, the type of place where Asian business execs snap up farmland and the local art center has Picassos on the walls. “High-net-worth people keep coming through here, looking for things to invest in,” says Grant Kook, president and CEO of the Golden Opportunities Fund, a local venture capital firm. It’s a comment that a decade ago might have been taken for sarcasm.

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To arrange a media visit, please contact:

Alexandra Stang
Media Relations Coordinator | Tourism Saskatoon
Ph: 306.931.7587 | [email protected]

Angela Moore
Director of Media | Tourism Saskatoon
Ph: 306.931.7585 | [email protected]

Copyright 2012 Saskatoon Visitor and Convention Bureau. All rights reserved.