Tag Archives: spark

VestaFire fundraising for SPARK at Victoria International Busking Festival 2013

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VicBuskers2013

VF_promo_20130127_114_printpicture: VestaFire is raising money for Burmese Refugees at Victoria Busking Festival

Nanaimo’s contemporary circus and fire performance troupe VestaFire is performing at the Victoria International Buskers Festival, July 19-29th.  As the festival’s featured fire troupe, VestaFire offers a spectacular evening fire show to dazzle audiences, with breathtaking choreography and elaborate costumes designed by local artisans. During the day, VestaFire will be performing a more traditional comedic circus show, complete with machete-juggling, a strait-jacket escape and death-defying acrobatics. This family troupe will be performing three times every day, so be sure to keep an eye out for them on the program.

VestaFire will be using this festival to fund raise for another trip to the Burmese Refugee camps. Performer Katlan Irvine is travelling to Thailand with SPARK! Circus (www.sparkcircus.org) in January 2014, where he will be teaching circus arts and performing fire shows in Burmese refugee camps, orphanages and hospitals. Troupe co-ordinator Karina Strong, her 9-year-old daughter Jenna Strong, and performer Quinn Beasley have all done tours with SPARK! and now they are helping Irvine raise the money needed to attend and bring joy and play to the children of these camps.

“I’m looking forward to experiencing a culture that is entirely different from my own,” says Irvine, “Play is an essential part of a child’s life and development, and something that can be heavily neglected in a refugee camp. I hope to bring joy and wonder to these war ravaged children.”

SPARK! reaches over 4,000 children each year with circus-style fire shows, playshops and donations of toys, art supplies, and creative tools.  Their goal is to lighten the children’s days with magic, wonder, laughter and smiles.  SPARK! is completely volunteer based through Performers Without Borders, so make sure to throw a couple extra dollars in Vesta Entertainment’s hat so that they can bring a smile to disadvantaged children.
More information can be found on their website http://www.VestaFireEntertainment.ca
http://www.sparkcircus.org
http://www.VictoriaBuskers.com

Jenna’s posts #2

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The Jumping Squirrel
Sat Jan 14
Today I met a nice jumping squirrel. It was so cute! It was really furry too, it was a small as my hand. I got to hold it and he liked me. His claws were sharp and he had little stripes on his tail. His head was furry too and he almost crawled up my sleeve!

The Cute Puppy and Koh Samui Dogs
Sunday Jan 15
In my hotel there was a cute little puppy. He was only one week old, and he was black. I got to feed him because his mom got killed by a car. The puppy’s name was Mummy and he could barely walk. There are many stray dogs on Koh Samui, and even if they have owners they are still very skinny and don’t have collars. They run around in the roads and often get hit by cars. We saw a couple that were limping from injuries.

The Bungalows
Monday Jan 16
Today my family and I stayed in a bungalow. A bungalow is a type of old hotel in thailand. We changed bungalows the next day and now we’re in a better one. Our old bungalow had holes in the roof, holes in the bathroom, and holes in the floor. One time when I opened the bathroom door , a huge cockroach jumped out and it was really big! But then it flew out the front door. It was very scary. Our new bungalow is much better. Our bungalow is close to the ocean. There are lots of waves in the ocean. Our troupe leader Andrea lives in the bungalow beside us.

First Workshops and Kids’ show!

My first workshop day went really well. I taught some kids how to hoop, and it was very fun. I taught at a school. The school had all sorts of buildings but they were all classrooms. The kids at the workshops were very kind. We also did a kids show at the school. I did my Honey Bee act for it. My mom was sick for the day so she did not come with us, but my dad came so it still worked.

LED and Fire Shows

Sometimes we do fire shows and sometimes we do LED. I perform my number with LED all the time. If it is an LED show I am mostly first. In the fire shows I’m usually second as we do a group number with fire first. I don’t do the group numbers unless we are using LED. It is called “Americano” and we are all on stage at once.