Anyone who has seen the lineup for Whistler Medals Plaza during the Paralympics is probably wondering how they can snag free tickets to see one of the six headlining acts booked to play there.
Here's some good news for fans of Kathleen Edwards, the Weakerthans, Antoine Gratton, the Trews, Justin Hines and Serena Ryder: you don't need a ticket for the Paralympic shows.
While the site still has a 5,000-person capacity, VANOC has decided to simply open the gates at 5:30 p.m. each day and allow people in on a first-come, first-served basis.
"There are no tickets," explained Maureen Douglas, director of communications for VANOC. "We're just going to load the venue every night."
They will have a pre-show starting at 6:30 p.m., followed by medals presentations at 7 p.m., and the headline concerts at 7:30 p.m.
Closing ceremonies sold out
Though the Paralympic closing ceremonies are going to be held right here in Whistler Village, anyone who doesn't already have a ticket won't be getting in.
Organizers have capped the event, which is being held at Whistler Medals Plaza, at 8,000 people, and all of those tickets are gone already.
As Maureen Douglas explains it, that 8,000-person limit includes media, officials, athletes, the International Paralympic Committee members and their sponsors, and several thousand members of the public.
"At $50 a ticket, they did sell out quite quickly," Douglas said.
The vast majority of tickets to the event were made available to the public in the third round of ticketing in early December and were sold-out in a matter of weeks, long before the Olympics began. And because of the small venue size, it's not looking like there will be another release of tickets closer to the event.
"The large majority of the tickets were for sale to the public because it's a smaller Games, so it comes with a smaller infrastructure in terms of guests of the Games, per se, and yet they went quite quickly, it was great!" Douglas explained.
Douglas says their statistics show that "a number of tickets" were bought within the Sea to Sky postal codes, though she couldn't give an exact amount.
Whistler kids busy during Olympics
Whistler schools may have closed during the Olympics, but that doesn't mean local kids weren't busy. One group of local children got involved with "The Initiative," a project run by the RMOW's Youth Centre. In fact, 617 kids between the ages of 13 and 18 took part.
To "bring people together in a unique way," they set up a temporary "gum wall" in the village, asking people to stick their used chewing gum to it in a creative way. They also staged a mass freeze in the village, a musical at Old Spaghetti Factory and stalked celebrities.
Check out what Whistler kids were up to during the Games by visiting www.theinitiative2010.blogspot.com.
See the 'Bigger Picture'
The Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre is offering an opportunity to see the natural world through international eyes.
The SLCC is hosting a special photographic exhibit in the upstairs gallery, featuring a selection of award-winning photographs taken by children around the world. The collection was assembled from the entries in an international youth photography competition designed to raise awareness amongst young people of the importance of biodiversity. The exhibition, entitled See the Bigger Picture, was coordinated by Airbus, an aircraft manufacturer, National Geographic and the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to celebrate the UN's International Year of Biodiversity.
The exhibit will be on display until Sunday, March 21.
Register for WAC art workshops
Feel like flexing your artistic muscles this summer? For the fifth year running, the Whistler Arts Council is hosting their Art Workshops on the Lake.
WAC is offering a range of two- to four-day workshops on everything from acrylic and oil painting to life drawing and sketching. This year's courses range in price from $170 to $425 and are offered at a variety of levels, ranging from introductory to advanced. Instructors will include Lori Goldberg, Suzanne Northcott, David McEwon and David Langevin. All of the workshops are held in a quaint heritage home on the edge of Alta Lake, offering gorgeous, inspirational views to nurture creative minds.
Registration just began, but some of the courses fill up fast, so anyone interested in enrolling should email [email protected] for more information.
