Equinox Vigil
2012-2018
As many of you know, the production of Equinox Vigil is costly and currently unsustainable without a community partner or sponsor. For the past three years, we have been dedicated to finding a community partner, a sustainable sponsor, or an effective model to continue to stage EV year after year. This research and outreach have pointed to the City of Calgary as the best fit, and we have been pursuing the City to take on the production of Equinox Vigil.
Despite our best efforts, The City of Calgary Administration have recently informed me that they will not be able to produce Equinox Vigil, but they are hopeful for the future and believe our event lines up with their strategic goals. They simply cannot commit to anything for 2019.
What that means for us is that 2018 will be the last iteration of Equinox Vigil under our small but mighty team.
I am writing this while in Victoria at the 10th Annual Soulstice cemetery event produced by Paula Jardine. Paula and I met in 2006 and she inspired me to dream up Equinox Vigil for Calgary. It’s synchronicity that a trip I planned months ago is now a journey of closure.
I’m disappointed in the outcome but I am proud that we initiated an award-winning and extraordinary event to honour the dead and bring hundreds of people together to experience their loss and grief in the calm beauty of Calgary’s Historic Union Cemetery led by artists, poets, dancers, musicians and choirs.
I remain hopeful for a future event of some kind but for now, I will have to conclude Equinox Vigil with 2018 as our last event. Thank you for your efforts, suggestions, donations, ideas and for your support and for coming to the graveyard these past seven years.
– Sharon Stevens