Unstoppable fun since 2009; SKAMPEDE July 8-10

Theatre SKAM’s family-friendly live performance festival in Victoria

Victoria’s outdoor live performing arts festival is back!

SKAMpede, Theatre SKAM’s annual performing arts festival in Victoria, returns this summer on July 8-10th. Now in its 14th year, SKAMpede festival have been a treasured part of Victoria since 2009. a dozen theatre companies, from Victoria to Montréal, will perform in various venues spread around the Songhees walk way, the inner harbour, and along the Galloping Goose Trail. Festival attendees will take in a range of site-specific, family-friendly performances and live theatre in Victoria, including dance, puppetry, comedy, and more! We are thrilled to bring live theatre to Victoria once again, and showcase brand new works from amazing independent Canadian talent.

Individuals or groups of up to 12 people can pre-book tickets to any of the three tour options listed below. Here’s how to pre-book your tickets:

  1. Review the tour options listed below.
  2. Select which tour(s) you want to see.
  3. Click “TICKETS” button. Choose whether you want to do a cycling or pedestrian tour.
  4. Select which date/time slot you want to go on the tour.
  5. Select how many tickets you wish to purchase beside the dollar amount you wish to pay. We are operating on a Pay What You Can ticket model, with a suggested price of $10 per person for each tour ticket or $20 in total per family.
  6. Your tour ticket(s) will be emailed to you. Show up to the launch point location listed on your ticket at the showtime you choose. The physical ticket is not required to get into the event – we just need you to give us your name and you’re in! We look forward to seeing you enjoy the show!

We would like to acknowledge the wonderful support in funding from the City of Victoria, the Province, the BC Arts Council, the Victoria Foundation, and the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Make sure to check out our SKAMpede Guide to make the most of this year’s festival!

Selkirk Tour 

Launch point: Millenium Square Park, 335 Waterfront Crescent.
Tour time: 45-55 min (pedestrian; see FAQ for more info)
Trail distance: 250 m

Shows: 

Site 1  – Baobab – Création multidisciplinaire’s ENTROPIC FOGS is a choreographic proposal in which the balance of images seeks a point of gravity. Between the weakening of the order and the increase of the disorder is a point of friction where the intimate roughly exist. Beginnings are endings, endings are middles and middles shrink like a heartbeat. Time turns around and the hourglass cries. But we still breathe.

Site 2  – Fear No Opera’s Breathe in the Beauty. Acapella musical selections encourage you to be present in this moment, free of nagging distractions, soaking in the beauty around you. Begin by noticing your breath. Is it fast, slow, laboured, easy? Begin to breathe with the rhythms and flow of the music; then breathe with the rhythms of nature.

Site 3 – Extended Space Theatre’s BIASIs there a reason every story needs to be told? Casey thinks so. And she’ll make sure it’s told correctly. From the creators of GRASP, BIAS is a comedic and heartwarming depiction of the bisexual experience. Through a movement and theatre hybrid, Jordan, Eden, and Casey reflect on the intricacies of sexual identity and the assumption we inherit. Maybe we’re all more similar than we realize.

Site 4 – Reverse Puppet Productions’ “When Everything Goes To Hell, I’ll Meet You At Our Spot”At the end of the world, two ex-best friends both instinctively go back to their favourite childhood “spot” Both refusing to leave, they are forced to either reconcile their differences and work past the arguments that fractured their relationship, or to stay mad and be alone at the end.

Note: Ticket sales for each festival day will close at midnight the night before. Ex. ticket sales for Saturday will close Friday at midnight. There may still be walk-up tickets available at the launch points. Contact the SKAM Hotline (250) 386.7526 our box office (236) 478-8131 for more info.

Note: The 3-in-1 Tour Packs begin tours at Selkirk at 12 p.m. and 12:20 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Then the tour groups will continue to Central for a launch time of 12:50 or 1:10 p.m. for a Cycling Tour. The final tour is the Songhees Walkway, which is a Pedestrian Tour, at 2:30 or 2:50.

SKAMpede's Selkirk--wheelchair accessible and a pedestration tour.
Map of each of the Selkirk tour stops.
SKAMpede Central Tour Banner
Map of each of the central tour stops.

Central Tour

Launch point: 860 Central Spur Rd (at The Goose)
Tour time approx. 1 hour. (cycling & pedestrian)
Trail distance: 500 m.

Shows: 

Site 1 – Atomic Vaudeville’s Hello Again. A musical Clown Crew is sent by the Establishment to manifest laughter and weave magic into the populace. They encourage an audience participant to sit on the throne, learn about who they are, make up stories, songs and misunderstand them. A ludicrous and consequential encounter.

Site 2 – Embrace Arts Foundation’s articulate is a dance piece exploring the central theme that, “Play is an important form of communication.” It is a series of structured improvisations based on a different childhood games like hide and seek and hopscotch. articulate is truly a celebration of the original electronic music score created by a team of three youth composers, and Embrace’s Director of Music programming, Erin Koop.

Site 3 – Traverse Arts Theatre’s to be them/to be us is a collectively created devised performance which dives into themes of community, scarcity, care, shame, displacement, joy, and fear in the context of the lives of Southern Resident Killer Whales, and their relationship to us above water. to be them/to be us draws intrinsic links between the human and the more-than-human and explores the effects of a destructive and unsustainable culture on us all, and the kinds of connection that give purpose, meaning and hope in a world of degrading seas and declining salmon.

Site 4 – Katie Cassady’s funky fungi. funky fungi is a contemporary dance duet focussed on interpreting and expressing the existence of fungi, focussing on mycelia networks and mushrooms. Through song and dance, we take an imaginative and fun journey into how mycelia and mushrooms might emote or express joy, exploring how the co-existence and collaboration of many species is necessary to create and sustain life cycles.

Note: Ticket sales for each festival day will close at midnight the night before. Ex. ticket sales for Saturday will close Friday at midnight. There may still be walk-up tickets available at the launch points. Contact the SKAM Hotline (250) 386.7526 our box office (236) 478-8131 for more info.

Note: The 3-in-1 Tour Packs begin tours at Selkirk at 12 p.m. and 12:20 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Then the tour groups will continue to Central for a launch time of 12:50 or 1:10 p.m. for a Cycling Tour. The final tour is the Songhees Walkway, which is a Pedestrian Tour, at 2:30 or 2:50.

Songhees Tour 

Launch point: Songhees Walkway
Cul-de-sac by the Songhees Harbour Ferry stop (48.42639, -123.3802)
Tour time approx. 1 hour (pedestrian only)
Trail distance: 500 m

Shows: 

Site 1 – Tara Rajah and Kira Radosevic’s Environmental Vibrations is a community-engaged performance work that relates the idea of the global movement of peoples to the migration of birds. It features a dancer and cellist improvising together within a public space, bringing together different sounds and gestures that represent the journey of leaving and arriving home. The musical improvisation takes as its point of departure the Malaysian (Malacca Portuguese) folk tune Jinkli Nona. The work is composed, choreographed, and performed collaboratively by Kira Radosevic and Tara Rajah.

Site 2 – Accompany Theatre’s Deep End. Accompany Theatre invites you to enjoy Deep End. Jump into this musical exploration of the big questions of friendship, through the small eyes of bugs! Join us for a playful picnic in the sun, and get to know a lovely ladybug, a busy bee, a mean mosquito, a cautious caterpillar, and a sequestered snail.

Site 3 – SNAFU Society of Unexpected Spectacles’ Not Enough Sunscreen in the World. SNAFU’s past SKAMpede shows have featured stylish business people devolving into dancing geese, giant Sea-squatch puppets rising from the sea to suck out people’s brains, and a Viking and Cavewoman gambling audience members in a life-size game of Wizard’s Chess. Absurd, stylized, physical, and using every surprise the Goose Trail offers – we can’t wait to see you there. “[SNAFU] ​​will forever change the way you see theatre and its possibilities…as each audience member truly feels like an important part of the narrative.” – Montreal Theatre Hub “A true pleasure that I would recommend to anyone who has become a little too familiar with reality.” – The Charlebois Post

Note: Ticket sales for each festival day will close at midnight the night before. Ex. ticket sales for Saturday will close Friday at midnight. There may still be walk-up tickets available at the launch points. Contact the SKAM Hotline (250) 386.7526 our box office (236) 478-8131 for more info.

Note: The 3-in-1 Tour Packs begin tours at Selkirk at 12 p.m. and 12:20 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. Then the tour groups will continue to Central for a launch time of 12:50 or 1:10 p.m. for a Cycling Tour. The final tour is the Songhees Walkway, which is a Pedestrian Tour, at 2:30 or 2:50.

SKAMpede Songhees Tour
Map of Songhees Tour stops.

The Hub

Selkirk Green Park – 350 Waterfront Cres.

Whether you want to see more art, you’re in need of a drink, or you have a question, the Hub is the place to go before or after your tour. The Hub is an unticketed nexus for all things SKAMpede. There will be performances by Reneltta Arluk with Tallis Kirby and the Lək̓ʷəŋən Traditional Dancers. The Hub also features a snack concession, where minimal waste snacks and beverages will be available for purchase, and a booth from our long-term festival partner, the Sustainable Fox.

On both Saturday and Sunday, Reneltta Arluk, Storyteller with words, and Tallis Kirby, Storyteller with bass, will be performing Larocque Stories from the Northern Trails on every half-hour beginning at 2:30 PM. At the head of the hour, beginning at 3:00 PM, the Lək̓ʷəŋən Traditional Dancers will perform. These shows will continue until 5:30 PM. To get a better idea of the times, you can look at the schedule below.

For more information about the Lək̓ʷəŋən Traditional Dancers, visit this page on the Songhees Nation’s website.

Lekwungen traditional dancers at the Hub in 2019.
Photo of a couple dancing by the Artists only tent.
The Hub Schedule. On Saturday and Sunday beginning at 2:30 Reneltta Arluk performs. At 3:00 Lekwungen Dancers. 3:30: Reneltta Arluk. 4:00: Lekwungen Dancers. 4:30 Reneltta Arluk. 5:00: Lekwungen Dancers. 5:30 Reneltta Arluk.
SKAMpede logos featuring two archival photos, one of the Visible Bodies Performance in 2021 and the other of an Aerialist at the Shipyard in 2021

NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN PERFORMANCES

SKAMpede is a festival in Victoria of new short works by top performers who have been selected through a formal submission process. Each of the shows are different and the range of performances encompasses spoken word, dance, story telling and much more!  The local performers have all worked as professional artists, including at Craigdarroch Castle, Atomic Vaudeville, The Belfry Theatre and Butchart Gardens. SKAMartists are paid for their work.

See our past lineups here.

SAFETY FIRST

Theatre SKAM has worked to develop this COVID-19 safe festival in Victoria carefully since 2008. Each year we see it grow. We know the event works and we know we can handle large crowds. We plan SKAMpede with our audience’s and staff’s safety as our utmost priority. Each tour is capped at a dozen attendees for safety on the trail.

SUSTAINABLE APPROACH

Like many people who regularly use the Galloping Goose, we also consider ourselves stewards of the trail. We have worked with city and regional officials, community groups, and other professionals to ensure the footprint of the event is minimal. We are continuing our partnership with The Sustainable Fox for the fourth year. This partnership has allowed us to reduce our waste and recycle up to 97% of materials used over the festival weekend.

Thank you to our 2022 sponsors:

Broad Street Dental

We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.