July 4 & 5: Pan Am Path Art Relay & Urbanvessel Celebrate The Don River with "Singing River" a Two-Day Festival Twelve Thousand Years in the Making!

TORONTO, June 29, 2015 /CNW/ - Join Urbanvessel, one of Toronto's most acclaimed experimental performance companies, at Todmorden Mills on July 4 and 5 for "Singing River," a festival that renews our relationship with the river through dance, music, audio installation, poetry, street art, storytelling and guided walks.

The festival, part of the Pan Am Path Art Relay, looks at the 12,000 years of human habitation around what is one of the city's most recognized watercourses. Yet while "the Don" is a household name in Toronto, few residents know about its rich and diverse history. Known as the Wonscotonach - "bright, burning point" - by the Anishinaabeg, the river was the site of several mills, including Todmorden Mills, built in 1793 and the site of this weekend's festival.

WHEN:	Saturday July 4, 2015: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
	Sunday July 5, 2015, 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.
WHERE:	Todmorden Mills, 67 Pottery Rd.
	Toronto Ontario, M4K 2B9
	Link to: https://fb.com/events/1429920640646153
IDEAL CAMERA	Saturday July 4, 2015: 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
/ MEDIA TIMES	Sunday July 5, 2015: 7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

EVENT HIGHLIGHTS:

Saturday's events showcase art installations, nature and poetry walks, audio installations, poetry engagement, and musical and dance performances. Sunday's events include audio installations and an evening riverside walk and performance. See panampath.org for more information and detailed list of events.

This weekend's events are presented in collaboration with Evergreen Brick Works, Aanmitaagzi, Native Earth Performing Arts, Regent Park Focus, Todmorden Mills and Regent Park School of Music.

At the intersection of multiple disciplines and cultures, Urbanvessel forges connections, reflects contemporary life and subverts social assumptions. Its creative works aim to alter the audience's worldview, drawing on the power of the human voice. Evergreen Brick Works helps solve the most pressing urban environmental issues by bringing diverse people together, inspiring them with possibilities and engaging them in identifying solutions and taking action.

BACKGROUND: About The Pan Am Path & Art Relay

The vision of the Pan Am Path is to combine the power of art and sport to create a living path across Toronto. From May 16 to August 15, 2015, the Pan Am Path will come alive with a city-wide Art Relay of installations and events. Each week, the festival travels across Toronto celebrating some of the city's greatest assets: diversity, nature, arts and active outdoor living.

The Pan Am Path was started by a group of Toronto artists and city-builders in collaboration with the City of Toronto. On July 18, 2013, Toronto City Council endorsed the Pan Am Path as a Host City Showcase Program of the Games. The Pan Am Path is an 84-kilometre continuous trail for walking, running, cycling and wheeling that connects the city from east to west. Legacy construction to improve and create new connections along the Pan Am Path will continue through 2017.

The Pan Am Path App is a wayfinding mobile app that matches your geographic location on the Path to music that is rooted within that community via 4 local music-streaming stations. Other Features include: a full map of the path, directions to nearby local businesses and a calendar of Pan Am Path Art Relay programming.

Friends of the Pan Am Path is the main organizer of the Pan Am Path Art Relay, motivated by the chance to celebrate the best of the region: art, nature and diversity -- while also creating a meaningful legacy of the 2015 Games for residents.

The Pan Am Path Art Relay is proudly supported by the City of Toronto, Toronto Foundation, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, Toronto Star, Toronto Arts Council, Trans Canada Trail, Canadian Heritage, Toronto Pearson, United Way Toronto, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Laidlaw Foundation, Lotus Leaf, & Westbury National.

For the full Pan Am Art Relay event calendar map, app and participating organizations, please visit: http://www.panampath.org.

NEXT-UP IN THE RELAY: July 11 - Shift - Taylor Creek Park

Join East End Arts for a bike tour of Shift. Featuring installations and murals by the STEPS Initiative, Z'otz* Collective, Project Gallery and Labspace Studio, Shift playfully explores diversity and emphasizes the potency of a simple change of perspective. Bike tour begins at 1 p.m. Rain or shine.

East End Arts is a local arts service organization that creates and promotes diverse, accessible activities that strengthen and unite communities in East Toronto.

SOURCE Friends of the Pan Am Path

MEDIA CONTACT: Andrea Chrysanthou, [phone], [email protected]; Julia Che, [phone], [email protected]