Queer Arts Festival: Ceremony for Rebel Spirits

The Queer Arts Festival – Dispersed (“QAF”) is coming up July 24 to August 13, 2021, presenting an eco-apocalyptic exploration of queer experience and artistic expression in the face of an ongoing pandemic and marginalization. The QAF is a hybrid format this year, with both online and offline events and performances. I’m giving away a pair of tickets to one of their on-site events, Ceremony for Rebel Spirits.

Ceremony for Rebel Spirits: Onibana Taiko and Alvin Erasga Tolentino

When: Saturday August 7, 8:00pm
Where: Mountain View Cemetery (5455 Fraser St, Vancouver)
Tickets: $15-$25

When Japanese folk tradition meets punk! Audience members are invited to commune with the ancestors via Obon dance, song, sensu (fan) cheerleading, fue, shamisen and kick-ass taiko.

Onibana Taiko 鬼束太鼓 are three Nikkei veterans of Vancouver’s taiko community, whose performances draw from Japanese traditional arts, festival drumming, and folk music and dance, all with a touch of feminist queer punk aesthetics. Onibana is a type of flower that grows in the grave sites of Japan. Through taiko, the group seeks to transform shadowy elements into beauty, bridging the divide so as to commune with our ancestors with song, dance, shamisen, flute, and kick-ass taiko.

Alvin Erasga Tolentino is a Filipino Canadian choreographer and dance artist, and the founding Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Co.ERASGA. His dance creations are driven from the need to intricately illustrate the human experience of light and dark and the infinitely complex relationship between nature and humanity. His choreography challenges the exploration of hybridity to reveal the private and public territory, identity, gender and the issues within the traditional and contemporary cross-cultural dialogue.

Win Tickets

I have two tickets to give away to this performance, here’s how you can enter to win:

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The Queer Arts Festival is on July 24 to August 13, 2021 at various locations and online. Tickets are available now. Follow the QAF on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more info.

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Tuesday, July 27, 2021.
Update: The winner is Zuzana!

Miss604 is a proud media sponsor of the Queer Arts Festival