BCFestival 2017 in Region 2                                                   Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                 VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
     December went by in a blur what with all of the wonderful Christmas parties and preparations and potluck dinners and yours truly did not write anything to be published in the January Valley Circle.
     Numbers mean a lot. A friend asks you how many of your family and/or friends came for Christmas dinner. She learns a lot from your answer, such as how much food preparation you did, the relative complexity of seating everyone, and the level of emotional intensity that the occasion brought.
     Your friend, knowing your family, will know how elaborate your menu likely was. Her “read” of your party includes the volume of food you bought and possibly the variety, too, because if your son hates pumpkin pie but everyone else loves it and only gets it at Christmas at your house, you will have made more than one pie. And if your daughters are the two vegetarians in the family, you prepared your turkey but also a meatless protein dish and your stuffing didn’t have giblets and you didn’t put it inside the turkey. If there were fourteen people, you prepared three vegetable dishes and salad, but if there were only six to feed, you made two vegetables and probably forgot to put out the pickled onions!
     Seating everyone can be quite a task, but having had your family for decades, you’ve probably got it figured out. Maybe you have an old door and sawhorses that make up a trestle table in the rec room when you have a large crowd, or maybe you serve buffet style and everyone sits in the living room with their plates on TV tables or on their laps. A smaller group probably was accommodated at your kitchen table.
     The pleasure, the fun, the outpourings of love and laughter, the good humoured joking, and the general furor of getting together of course rises with the size of your party. So your friend, who knows how your family “clicks,” with that one question, has gauged not only how hard you worked to enjoy Christmas dinner, but also your happiness with the whole event. And that, my friend, is what she really wanted to know all along.
     Your festival committee is preparing to put on a wonderful festival be it two hundred people or eight hundred people, like we had in 2005. The callers and cuers, venue, and décor will all be great!
     Here is a number that means a lot to your BCFestival committee. Our number of registrations for BCFestival 2017 as of January 10th is 195. We are forecasting the total number based on how many have registered so far.  If 195 were the total number for our event, it wouldn’t be big, but it would more dancers than, say, the Sweetheart Gala that’s on this month. The Gala, though, is a Plus dance.  Twenty squares of Plus. For Festival, maybe we should be able to anticipate that many Plus dancers AND at least thirty squares of mainstream dancers, AND a few squares of Advanced as well.
     How many more will register? Hmmm, maybe what has happened in the past could help us predict. In June 1993, Chilliwack hosted the provincial festival. By January 1993, 43% of the total was registered.
     QUICK! Do the math! If this is indicative of a pattern of human behaviour, and if the pattern holds true, OH MY GOODNESS!! Could it be? Is it possible? Both methods of predicting come up in the mid-400’s. YES, it could be, and YES it is possible. Wow! This is going to be one terrific event, and, for many of you, it will be the biggest event of your square dance experience. Right here in our own region.
     Come on! Let’s get those remaining 57% of registrations pouring in! We are on our way to one fabulous three-day party!!

BCFestival 2017 in Region 2                                                    Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                 VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
     Norman phoned me today. He told me he has been talking up the need to register for our festival next July (Yeah, Norm!), specifically to A dancers. He spoke passionately about the demise of the plans for BCFestival 2011 in Prince George due to lack of registrations. When the decision to cancel was made, Norm heard dancers say they were planning to register. Good intentions don’t put the funds in the bank. It is a powerful negative example of the possible consequences of failure to act. Could that happen to Festival 2017? I don’t want to even consider it.
                  Instead, let’s focus on how attending Festival 2017 will kindle enthusiasm for dancing, will meet our desire to experience a big event, and will showcase callers and cuers from around a wide area. These are all good and worthy outcomes. Also, the attendance of the elected dignitaries of Surrey and Langley, who are being approached to grace our opening ceremonies on Thursday evening, will help the public take notice of Modern Square Dancing. We aren’t dancing out in the barn anymore!
                  There could potentially be over 800 dancers in attendance at this festival if all of Region 2 came out. Wow, that’s a lot of people! And because we are all acquainted with one another and with the customs of square and round dancing, even though there’s a large crowd, everyone will be familiar with what to expect. Nobody will be unruly. Everyone will be considerate and helpful to each other. It will be great!
                   Let’s stir up some passion and get registered! Region 2, I am asking for 50 more registrations before the calendar turns to 2017!! Let’s break the 200 mark in the upcoming 4 weeks!! That’s about 50 more individuals, 25 couples, or one medium-sized club.
                  It has just been announced that Region2, under the inspiring leadership of Steve Edlund and Norm, is bidding to host the National Convention in Surrey in 2020! We have a lot to become excited about! Lots to look forward to. Lots to plan for. In 2017 the Provincial festival; in 2020, the National!  Whoohoo!
                  One last thought: ParticipACTION is planning a celebration of physical activities for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017. Please, all square dancers, go to the site and click to vote for square dancing, as well as your other activities. https://www.participaction.com/en-ca/programs/participaction-150-play-list  Scroll through the screens, 10 activities per screen, till you get to square dancing on screen 18.

BCFestival 2017 in Region 2                                                   Thurs. to Sat. July 6, 7, 8, 2017
By Wendy Krueger, Co-Chair                                                 VENUE: Cloverdale Rodeo Grounds
      “This is a song that never ends…” my never-ending love for Square and Round Dancing, and the wonderful people that make it so fabulous. We see that passion on the faces of dancers all across this region, and everywhere else we go, too. When we get together to enjoy each other’s company and dance together, it kindles happiness, friendship, and the desire to do it all over again!
      We are going to get together in a big way in just 8 months at our Provincial Festival next July, and I see more and more Festival ribbons are taped onto your badges and you are wearing them to dances wherever you go. We have close to 150 registered right now, so people are feeling more and more sure about their summer plans as the weeks go by. They know where the fun is going to be and they aren’t going to miss out. The top three areas where the registrants live are Surrey, Abbotsford, and Langley. Hooray! But come on Chilliwack! Come on Burnaby! Come on Maple Ridge! We want everybody tied for the top! Strap on your rocket packs and blast over to the Festival website and get yourself registered. The registration cost has gone up to $45 per person ($25 for youth). After March 1, 2017, it goes up to $50 per person ($30 for youth).
 
The winner of the free registration is Chuck Sheehan!  Congratulations to Chuck!

      What could anyone do to encourage some excitement about the Festival? Here are a few ideas: post it on Facebook or any other social media you use; email your friends; buy someone a registration to the festival for their birthday, anniversary, or Christmas present.
      Who is looking for a way to help out? Contact David about visiting businesses in the Cloverdale area to ask them to advertise in our Festival program booklet. We will need people who are available in the daytime, weekdays mostly, to do that work. 604-864-7435
      Thank you to all who are presently helping in large and small ways. The committee appreciates your efforts. We will all have the most fun because we did it together!