‘A return to normal’: Live festival shows are back in downtown Saskatoon

A brand new tent is up at the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival site, and that means summer is officially in full swing.

The new fabric-covered structure was set up recently and will be the site of several live festival shows in downtown Saskatoon.

Skye Brandon, the interim co-curator of the festival, said he isn’t sure how the year will go, but has high hopes things will have that normal, pre-COVID feeling.

“It’s a mix of excitement and still a lot of unknowns, because last year we really didn’t know what we were going to have,” Brandon said.

“We were lucky enough that Macbeth was able to open and we had lots of people show up. We were kind of one of the very first things that was able to come back.”

Even with some uncertainty, Brandon said there’s still a lot to look forward to this summer.

“We want to make sure we’re giving our patrons a closer step back to what we did before, in terms of not just one show, but various productions,” he said.

“Hopefully by extending the season back to what it normally was, people might have more opportunities to see the show and more events to make it feel like that festival feel. So hopefully it will feel like normal.”

The box office is now open to the public. On weekdays until June 25, you can buy tickets to shows from 2:30 p.m. to  6 p.m. On Saturdays, the office is open from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The festival season includes three major shows in 2022: Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Will by Vern Thiessen, and Iago Speaks by Daniel MacDonald.