Nelson Arts Festival 2012

So last month happened to be the month of the annual Arts Festival here in Nelson which means 17 days of theater, dance, comedy, music, and cabaret.  Most of the events that were in store were a bit pricey but a couple of them were free, which brought Andy and I (and seemingly all of Nelson) downtown one Friday night for the Masked Parade!

Many of the main streets in the centre of town were blocked off for this event, which included live music, a rock climbing wall, basketball, a few rides, street performances, and a ton of tempting food stands:

Then after all the festival events took place, we discovered last week that they were winding up and holding one last carnival finale at Founders Heritage Park!  If you remember from a few posts back, Andy and I had wanted to go there, and just for the day of the finale, we were able to go in for free!

So we ended up spending an hour or two, browsing the old historic buildings and taking in the carnival atmosphere.  They had a mini ferris wheel, pony and train rides, and as always, live music and a variety of food stands all around:

I love the community feel that these events provide in Nelson.  There's more and more we're discovering all the time in this small city.