Supercrawl.

In Hamilton there is a monthly event called the Art Crawl, in which a renewed neighbourhood filled with artistry and local talent opens its galleries' doors for free to the public. There are over 10 galleries for viewing, many shops, cafes, and bars, and often live entertainment. It is a celebration of the amazing treasures to be found in our own community, in a place that had fallen from grace over the past decades, given new life by a young generation who loves this city and wants it to flourish. Once a year, there is a Supercrawl that amps everything up. This year boasted bigger and better offerings, including 3 stages with headliner Broken Social Scene and many more vendors among the standard art installations.

I chose this event as my birthday celebration so that people wouldn't have to spend money and could feel free to branch off or come and go as they wished. I had a group of friends come in from Toronto just for this event - not a common traffic flow for events - it's usually me heading out there! Everyone gathered at my apartment first, filling it fuller than it's ever been. Friends I haven't seen in a while were able to make it. I opened some presents, all lovely, and brought to me from Toronto, Victoria, and Paris. Then we walked down to James North and immediately encountered the congested streets, coloured purple from the concert stage lights and tangled in pot smoke.

We walked the strip, ducking into storefronts with antiques, live jazz, art supplies, and of course, galleries lined floor to ceiling with canvases detailing everything from floral still life paintings to comic-style graphic art. Vendors included our city's increasingly popular food trucks, cupcakes and grilled cheese flying out of their windows. Buskers sang and strummed for change. A small stage hosted swordfighting. A building at a major intersection was topped with gigantic inflatable human figures, lounging over the eaves. In the street, there were several art installations that the public could interact with. Brightly hued abstract structures, incredibly detailed chalk art of classic paintings, and my favourite, this bear:

During the Art Crawl, there is always a section called the Makers' Market, in which local artisans sell their goods. It's one of my favourite things to attend, especially because it is set up in the yard of a truly awesome cathedral. When I turned and looked behind me for stragglers, I glimpsed a huge glow above the church and could not process that it was the moon until I moved back far enough to see the full moon and its surrounding aura.

James North has been an early adopter of yarnbombing, though much of the knit graffiti has been removed. A bar, The Brain, remains cloaked in yarn, complete with knit flowerboxes.

Late in evening, my Toronto friends departed and I bumped into a group of people I went to high school with. I was surprised that there was not only recognition, but hugs all around. My first ever boyfriend was there and asked, "So, what have you been up to in the last twelve years...?" I bumbled through sufficient interactions with them and began picking my way through the dense crowd to rejoin another group of friends who described their location as "on a hill." Somehow I found them and indeed there was a hill - most convenient for improving our view of the main stage, just in time for Broken Social Scene. The band sounded great and thrilled the crowd with lots of older hits. The person I had been unable to find all night ended up sitting down on some rocks just across from our hill for a smoke and we finally connected. Magic. I walked home soon after, the night air cool but pleasant. I slept deeply, exhausted from a night full of engaging arts with the people I love most.

18/09/11 - Update: Some great photos from Supercrawl are on Flickr.