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Flag Stop Festival combines dance, music, theatre and more

Now in its fourth year, Alta Lake festival runs on Aug. 7 and 8
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Acting up The Flag Stop Theatre and Arts Festival is back with a multi-disciplinary artwork and a play on the The Point Artist-Run Centre's floating stage. Photo by David Buzzard for The Point Artist-Run Centre

Collaboration and experimentation is the theme of this year's summer Flag Stop Theatre and Arts Festival at The Point Artist-Run Centre on Alta Lake.

Now in its fourth year, the festival runs over two days and pulls together theatre, dance, music and more.

And artistic director Stephen Vogler has pulled these together for a summer project that has been "quite an adventure," using his network of friends and artists to build it.

"I'm interested in this approach because I do some different arts, like writing and music. I work with a lot of different artists through The Point, and in my life. I see the common lines between artists who work between different disciplines — approaches, working habits, ways of thinking," he says.

In the past he has worked on pieces that have brought different artists together, but his aim was to connect different artistic traditions under one theme. It fits in with Vogler's aim of turning the centre and the festival into a hotbed of creative development.

This year's resulting performance project, unsurprisingly called Lines, is a multi-disciplinary artwork incorporating dance, music, film and painting.

"We've focused on the project leading up to the festival. We've always had things grow out of the project that artists have been doing at The Point over the summer; it is really pronounced this year," he says.

Vogler worked with choreographer and dancer Trish Belsham to bring it together.

"It's quite exciting, it's being created as we go. It's very collaborative," Vogler says.

"We wanted to do a piece like this, to use different art forms. I came up with the concept. Lines is to do with the lines that separate different types of artistic disciplines, how these different parts work together in one piece."

The idea is crossing lines as well as finding them, he adds.

"From the outside, you tend to think of people getting together and working nicely. A happy thing. But, actually, quite a lot of sparks can fly, with various projects going on," he says.

"And that's a good thing, the energy that comes from trying to throw a whole bunch of things together."

Lines takes place on Saturday, Aug. 8, at 8 p.m.

The centre is open that day from 2 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., with alt-country cabaret music by Carolyn Marks and The Room-Mates at 8:30 p.m. The evening ends with a lantern boat procession finale on the lake at 10 p.m.

There is also live music, face painting and lantern making throughout the day.

On Friday, Aug. 7, is the premiere of the play Sex at Sea by Brian Kaufman on the Point's floating stage at 8 p.m., and punk klezmer music by the Geoff Berner Band at 8:30 p.m. The festival runs on Friday from 6 p.m to 11:30 p.m.

Dinner is available both nights.

A two-day pass to the festival is available at two prices: $70 includes dinner and $40 for show only; One night is $40 with dinner and $25 show only.

For more information, visit www.thepointartists.com.