Skip to content

Harrison Festival presents its first family ‘barn dance’

The event will feature a live band and caller, who will teach contra, square, and round dances
20042913_web1_Peterborough_contra_dance_November_2007_90739
An example of contra dancing. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Harrison Festival Society will be producing a special family dance on Sunday (Jan. 12) at 2 p.m. in the Harrison Memorial Hall.

The dance will be a traditional called dance, or “barn dance,” that will feature a live band and caller.

According to Harrison Festival Society marketing manager Bryan Cutler, the caller will teach square and round dancing, as well as contra, which is a type of folk dancing.

In a release, Cutler said the caller, Bob Rentz, is an experienced dance caller on the Vancouver contra dance scene.

The band will consist of The Paperboys fiddler Kalissa Landa and local musicians from a traditional Irish music group that meets regularly in Popkum, led by Harrison Festival director Andy Hillhouse.

RELATED: Paperboys set to party onstage at Harrison Memorial Hall

Although the Harrison Festival has a history of social dance workshops at the summer festival, Cutler said it has not produced such a dance for many years.

Tickets will be available at the door at the Harrison Memorial Hall in Harrison Hot Springs, and will cost $12 for adults, and $5 for children 12 and under. Doors open at 1:30 p.m.



news@ahobserver.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter

20042913_web1_Family-Barn-Dance-11x8.5