Sunday, January 27, 2013

HarbourKIDS Skating Festival, Feb. 17 and 18

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Family Day Weekend fun for the whole family at Harbourfront Centre

TORONTO, ON --– Paint the town white this Family Day weekend with two skatetastic days at Harbourfront Centre’s FREE HarbourKIDS Skating Festival, presented by RBC Play Hockey.

There'’s something for the whole family to enjoy from skating and snow castles outside to dance competitions and Rap Battlez inside.  Get involved in some interactive theatre, create a self portrait using various media, make a stuffed polar bear or create something original in LEGO®! Whatever you choose and wherever you go, you will find something to inspire you and your whole family!

HarbourKIDS is Harbourfront Centre’s family programme designed to inspire imagination and creativity in children ages five to 12 years old, with free weekend festivals year-round.  Come and explore ideas and values through Harbourfront Centre’s lens of contemporary arts and culture.  Ignite young imaginations, creativity and thought by asking questions and challenging kids to share their unique vision of the world.

For complete event details and full schedule, the public can visit harbourfrontcentre.com/harbourkids or call the Information Hotline at 416-973-4000. Harbourfront Centre is located at 235 Queens Quay West, in the heart of downtown Toronto’s waterfront.  For information about getting here during the Queens Quay and York Quay revitalization visit harbourfrontcentre.com/gettinghere
EVENT LISTINGS
Skating & Outdoor Activities:
Le Patin Libre
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18 (Natrel® Rink) Performances at 12:30 p.m. & 3 p.m.
Le Patin Libre will amaze and dazzle visitors with short, impromptu performances and interactive rink animation throughout the weekend. First-time skaters and experts alike will be invited to join the artists of Le Patin Libre in games and challenges.
Natrel® Slo-Skate Zone
Sunday, Feb. 17 2:30 p.m.  – 5 p.m. / Monday, Feb. 18 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Natrel® Rink)
Sometimes the rink is packed with people and they like to move FAST! The Natrel® Slo-Skate Zone is a special area where little ones can try skating for the first time and move as slowly as they want. Don’t forget to take a break and get a free sample of Natrel® hot chocolate!
RBC Play Hockey Activities
Monday, Feb 18. 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Natrel® Rink)
RBC Play Hockey will be back this year bringing several activities and family fun to the rink.
DIY Snow Castle
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Natrel® Rink)
Every time the Olympia ice resurfacer clears the rink, it creates a big pile of snow, just waiting to be sculpted and carved. We’ll provide the buckets and you can shape the snow into a magical castle.  We’ll even give you spray bottles with coloured water, so you can paint the snow.  Come and build the best snow castle ever, on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Dance:
Street Dance Canada Competitions
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18
12 p.m. / 2 p.m. / 4 p.m. (Lakeside Terrace)

HarbourKIDS partners with Street Dance Canada to bring some of the best young performers in the country to Harbourfront Centre. A live DJ will be spinning some polar beats to groove to on the rink, and the whole thing will be hosted by the incredible award winning Sean Mauricette, aka Subliminal, a beat-boxer, DJ, lyricist and producer.

Arts & Crafts:
The Children’s Own Media Museum
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (West Arcade)
Exploring the The COMM Experimental Portrait Studio
This mobile media museum is a place where kids are the creators and teachers, a space where kids can create their own portraits and become part of the museum ‘family’.  Portraits can be drawn by hand on paper, on a touch-screen, taken with a camera, or taken with a camera and then manipulated in a photo program.  The space will be open for families to explore the diverse drawing materials, methods and technologies.
Artwork by Arts for Children and Youth
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Marilyn Brewer Community Space)
Working with community partners, Arts for Children and Youth provide opportunities for children and youth in under-resourced communities and schools to engage meaningfully and actively in hands-on, high quality arts education.  We'll be showcasing artwork created by some of the youngest – and most talented – artists around.

LEGO®
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. (Marilyn Brewer Community Space)
Create and be creative in our always-popular LEGO® room!

Theatre & Music:
Playback Theatre
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18
2:30 p.m. & 4 p.m. (Miss Lou’s Room)

Join us in Miss Lou’s Room, the storytelling hub of Harbourfront Centre, to share some stories of your own! You tell a story about your family or neigbourhood, and professional actor/facilitators will act out your stories. Afterwards they will give you a chance to respond. Did they get it right? What details are important?
Rapp Battlez a.k.a. Rhyme Times
Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb. 18 1:30 p.m. & 3:30 p.m. (Studio Theatre)
Adapted for kids, this rhyming showdown is a hilarious, off-the-wall mix of rap, comedy and spectacle. Watch as some of Canada’s most talented comics adopt big, bold characters, costumes, and of course rhymes.  Letters vs. Numbers, Winter vs. Summer, Cats vs. Dogs, you the audience choose the winners as the characters let loose in their quest for Rapp Battlez supremacy. This 45 minute extravaganza is guaranteed to provide lots of laughs for everyone.
Music with Bite – Fiestango
Monday, Feb. 18 ONLY! English show at 1 p.m. / French show at 3 p.m. (Brigantine Room)
Three mischievous cousins receive a large trunk in the mail. Inside, they find all manner of amazing objects, including… an old diary belonging to the young and mysterious Mercedes. Just for fun, they decide to act out the story of Mercedes, who spent her life traveling with this trunk in tow, filling it with souvenirs. Immersing themselves in the narrative, the three cousins rediscover and invent their own fantastic adventures that lead them to learn about the history of the tango, a style of music and dance they adore. But a question remains unanswered: Just how did this mysterious trunk make its way into their hands?

Workshops:
Sock Polar Bears with Operation Sock Monkey 
Two workshops ONLY: Sunday, Feb. 17 & Monday, Feb 18 from 2- 4 p.m. (Studio Lab 1)
This workshop includes a brief presentation on Operation Sock Monkey and the communities we serve. Then comes the fun part, making stuff! Two OSM Operatives will lead your group through the craft, providing step-by-step instruction and assistance.  It takes approximately two hours to make a sock animal. Crafters 10 and under must be accompanied by an adult. Pre-registration by email: Lindsey@perationsockmonkey.com

ABOUT HARBOURFRONT CENTRE
Harbourfront Centre is a Canadian charity operating the 10 prime acres of Toronto's central waterfront as a free and open public site. We celebrate the multiplicities of cultures that comprise Canada and enliven the city through the creative imaginations of artists from across the country and around the globe. Harbourfront Centre attracts more than 17 million visits to its site each year to experience 4,000 diverse public events and activities. Harbourfront Centre receives operational support from the Government of Canada and the City of Toronto and program funding from all levels of government, the private sector and individual donors.

Media Contact: Cat Fawcett, 416-973-4381, cfawcett@harbourfrontcentre.com
media_relations_dpt@harbourfrontcentre.com

For more information visit harbourfrontcentre.com
Follow us on Twitter @harbourfrontTO

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