The East Coulee Spring Festival is a sure sign the season is changing. In fact, Drumheller residents have been able to count on it for two and a half decades.
    The East Coulee Spring Festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The annual event that brings some of the finest musicians from across the province and beyond, is back and provides a weekend of incredible music.
    “We have some really good artists lined up again, so we are celebrating it in that respect,” said executive director of the East Coulee School Museum Barb Steeves.
    This show goes May 3 and 4 with more than 40 performances on three venues. The line up includes some local artists such as Layne Syvertsen, Willow Creek, and the Wayfaring Fiddlers, as well as perennial favourites like the Sadlier–Brown Band. Steeves says  Black Cherry Perry’s Mississippi Medicine Show always puts on a great show.
    “We have Matt Blais coming, he actually got male artist of the year in Calgary last year. The band that is coming the furthest is Double Helix, a jazz band from North Vancouver,” said Steeves.
    She adds the event is volunteer driven. In fact, the artists all donate their time for the performance. The funds raised at the festival allows the East Coulee School Museum to continue its operations throughout the year.
    “I love seeing the people here enjoying music, dancing, getting out on the lawn and enjoying themselves, it makes the place come alive,” said Steeves.
    Performances begin on Friday, May 3 at 6:30 p.m. and continues into the evening.
    On Saturday, May 4, the show continues starting at noon and goes into the night.
    Tickets are available at brownpapertickets.ca or at Riverside Value Drug Mart. For more information go to www.ecsmuseum.ca

Visitors to the Royal Tyrrell Museum this Saturday will have the opportunity to meet and learn from one of Hollywood’s top animators.

Glen McIntosh worked for George Lucas’ visual effect company, Industrial Light and Magic, for about 20 years.  While he has worked on many films, he is most known for his work on the Jurassic Park series.

“I worked on Jurassic Park 3 way back in 2001 and was the raptor supervisor, and on Jurassic World I was the overall animation supervisor,” he tells the Mail. “That meant going on location with the actors, teaching the motion capture performers how to move like dinosaurs,  and being in charge of all the dinosaur movement for all the dinosaurs in the film.”

Originally from Calgary, he took some inspiration from the Tyrrell.

“My two loves were always drawing and film, and dinosaurs were always fun to draw for me. My parents would take me to the Tyrrell when I was a boy, and I always had a fascination when we would drive to Drumheller and see the dinosaur models and hear about the history of Drumheller and the fact those incredible animals were alive so many million years ago.”

“It helped nurture my fascination with the films of fantasy.”

Even when he was working in the industry, he would consult with palaeontologists and would return to the Tyrrell and do drawings of the displays and fossils.

“Understanding their anatomical structure better helps you understand how they moved,” he said.  

His presentation is this Saturday, May 4 at 1:30 p.m. at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in the Auditorium. The presentation is free with admission.