VANCOUVER — After a one-year hiatus, the Virgin Festival returns to B.C. this month with a mixed line-up of talent including indie rock stars, hip hop icons and up-and-comers.

Oh, and lets not forget the pole dancing, fortune-telling, yoga, autograph and video gaming opportunities that make the two-day event into what organizers call a “festravaganza.”

It’s a formula so popular that the 14-year-old UK version, coined V-Fest, attracts about 175,000 people each year — tickets for the annual event sell out in about an hour.

But B.C. still has a way to go before we catch up to the British hype.

In spite of a successful 2007 kick-off — acts like The Killers, Hot Hot Heat and Billy Talent lured 25,000 fans to UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium for two rainy days in May — the event didn’t return last year.

And many wondered if it was a one-time deal.

“Last year the stars just didn’t align,” says director of Virgin Festival Canada Andrew Bridge.

“We had originally hoped to return to Vancouver in 2008 but didn’t feel that we could deliver a great line-up and experience comparable to 2007,” he says.

Putting on a major rock festival involves many different factors, he says.

“The main challenge of putting any major festival together is getting all of the pieces together to create a festival that delivers a full experience to the festival-goer — from the line-up right down to the venue and on-site experiences,” Bridge says.

“We’ve always said that we don’t want to go to a market just for the sake of it, but want to be sure that we bring the full Virgin Festival experience to that market.”

But even though it didn’t pan out last year, he says, organizers were optimistic about establishing the event in B.C.

“We always hoped to bring it back,” he says.

Besides that, the success of the first-ever Pemberton Music Festival last summer — it saw 40,000 people head to the mountains for four days and 120 acts, including Coldplay and Jay-Z — affirmed that there is a big market for outdoor festivals in B.C., he says.

He adds: “B.C. loves their music and there’s a great energy to this province.”

Things came together nicely this year too, he says.

After touring Deer Lake Park, Bridge says, he was impressed by the natural setting and thought it seemed like a fit for the family-oriented festival. (Kids under four years old are free.)

“They’ve done some great events there recently and it’s really come to the forefront as a large music venue,” he says, adding they’re expecting to fill it with about 20,000 festival-goers.

Organizers hope to make it a regular event, he says, adding they’re taking it one festival at a time. And he says, it would be great to find a location that allows for camping too.

“We’re looking forward to bringing the festival to life at Deer Lake Park this year and are focusing on making this year a success before we move on to planning the years to come.”

This year’s line-up includes a real mix of music. There are headliners like Ben Harper and The Roots as well as indie hitmakers like Metric and Broken Social Scene as well as lesser-knowns like Mute Math or Future of the Left.

“People come out for the talent,” Bridge says. “People want to go to a festival and learn about new music.” And they also come to hear bands they know andlove, he says.

This year’s party offers plenty of both.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t rain again.

Yes, you read the headline correctly, Pole Fitness enthusiasts want Pole Fitness to be a contender in the Olympics. And by all indication, they will keep fighting until this eventually happens.

A worldwide online petition was started late in 2008,  to have Pole Fitness considered by the Olympic Organizing Committee as a contender for the 2010 Olympics. www.omninerd.com/articles/Pole_Dancing_An_Olympic_Sport

And why not when you consider that curling is an Olympic sport.

In recent years BMX racing and Snowboarding have been added and now there is talk about adding skateboarding and hopefully Pole Fitness.

There is no denying that Pole Fitness has gone mainstream. For those unaware, Pole Fitness has grown well beyond the $1million dollar stage and has expanded into an organized worldwide competition for prizes. “It really isn’t that different from a training perspective, it’s that this just happens to be vertical”.

People that have never been inside of a Pole Fitness studio don’t understand the parallels between gymnastics and pole tricks. If Pole Fitness were presented at the Olympics this would help break down those barriers (Not to mention boost ratings that have reportedly been declining in the past years), and prove what pole enthusiasts all over the world already know. Perfecting the pole is hard work that gives the participant tremendous confidence.

Pole work involves a lot of gymnastics and requires a gymnasts discipline because of the time it takes to acquire that type of agility and flexibility. Generally speaking most women get involved in PoleFitness because they are traditional gym goers or even gym junkies, who enjoy the fitness challenge of mastering pole spins and tricks. It is quite common to hear “Wow I didn’t realize pole dancing was this hard” from women taking there first pole class. Those that have the patience and passion to master the art of pole pleasantly surprise themselves (and others) with the pole tricks they have learned.

Pole enthusiasts liken themselves to skilled athletes, not much different than an ice skater, or gymnast that you see at the Olympics. It has been argued that if a pole athlete’s pure strength, flexibility and artistry was seen performing on a pole, during the Olympics, it would “officially” be recognized worldwide, as a serious sport.

With all the hard work, hours, dedication, application and passion women put into their pole workouts they naturally want to the art and mastery of their craft to be shown. What better place than the Olympics?

Perhaps Pole Fitness won’t make it to the 2010 Olympics but its contenders say they will keep on pushing for the year that it will be recognized by the Olympics as the true sport that it is.

If you attended the fundraising event, Artists in the Park, hoping to see the pole dancers announced in the June 10 Citizen, you were out of luck. So were the Spinning Angels who were planning to demonstrate their art for you. Their approval to appear was withdrawn when pressure was brought to bear on the event organizers. Because I recommended the Spinning Angels for the event, and because I believe this sort of censorship bullying strikes at the very heart of an open society, I feel compelled to comment on this development.
There is no point in being coy about why the Spinning Angels were excluded. In our culture, pole-dancing is associated with exotic dancing in bars, an activity some people find so inappropriate or provocative that they feel compelled to protect the rest of us from its influence.

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Your core has to be incredibly strong to pull off these jaw-dropping moves and to do it in 6″ lucite heels is no small feat! The winner, Jenyne Butterfly, obviously practices yoga, because I spot at least 3 poses in her routine, including Bow and One-Legged Wheel. My friend and I whooped and hollered through the whole thing and now we’re both thinking of trying out a pole dance class at Flirty Girl Fitness or S-Factor Chicago.

Now I see the difference between modern pole dancing and dirty stripper routines, although I’m still not sure these dancers should be performing for high school students.

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Regarding the letter “Pole dancing debases yoga,” (April 30) in response to Kylie Mendonca’s article about the Yoga Centre (“Move your body,” April 16), Mendonca reported that yoga was being made more accessible, not by offering pole dancing, but through the Yoga Centre’s new Yoga Therapy programs, as people with chronic pain, illness, disease, and injury find a typical yoga class in this town is not possible due to their condition. The fact that the Yoga Centre has chosen to offer pole-dancing classes is no different from my choice to offer various forms of movement weekly, including women’s ecstatic dance, aikido (martial art), gyrotonics and gyrokinesis, as well as various forms of yoga: pregnancy, intro to yoga, vinyasa yoga, beginner yoga, and yoga therapy.

Pole dancing in studios today is a movement form, instructed and presented as a Pole fitness activity. Just as gymnastics use horizontal bars or aerial dancers wrap themselves in fabric into beautiful shapes, pole dancing has transformed itself and empowers women to hold their body weight, and improve strength, balance, and body mechanics. There are national and international sport competitions and pole dancing is up for approval for the Olympics. I was raised in San Luis Obispo and being a local business owner consider it a gift and opportunity to provide people a safe place where they can attain their ideal health, both mentally and physically. It would be out of the question that I would offer a program that would debase yoga and its tradition or “perpetuate the culture of pornography” or “objectify women”.

Pole Dancing – You definitive guide

Pole dancing burns calories, tones body muscles, increases flexibility, improves fitness and can help tone your whole body. If you want to take up pole dancing then head to a class or keep training at home with a portable pole dancing kit and the pole aerobics workout DVD included for the basic moves:

The Walk Around: Stand tall with your shoulders back. Hook your arm around the pole and tip toe slowly and sexily around the pole.

The Body Ripple: Holding the pole with one hand, move your shoulders into it. Stick your bum out and ripple inwards until your stomach is on the pole. Then pull out your shoulders, bringing your pelvis towards pole. Repeat several times so the movement flows. (more…)

The Pole Professionals will be appearing at Lifestyle Expo ’09 on Friday and Saturday from 17:00, providing thirty minutes of inspiring Pole Dancing routines on each day.

The display will be served as a joint collaboration between Qualified Instructor, Maria Fallas of Pole Professionals, who will be responsible for the Choreography and technique, and Anna Ratcliffe of Costa Adventures, who will adopt a more Managerial role.

Each performance will be divided into three sections, one of which requiring the participation of three (a total of six) adventurous readers. The Pole Professionals are searching for a group of fun-loving, thrill-seeking volunteers to join them for a complete ‘movement makeover’.

Participants will spend time familiarizing with the music and learning the routines under the guidance of Maria and Anna, and receive a stunning Cinderella makeover, before performing alongside of the group during the Expo.

Maria is keen to promote pole dancing not as an erotic, racy form of entertainment, but rather the most fashionable and fun way to get in shape, build confidence and promote self-belief. Her philosophy is that all women are simply amazing and that anyone has the ability to go from ‘beginner to bombshell’ in just a couple of hours. She stressed that the ladies involved will need no prior dance or exercise experience and can be of any age, fitness level or background, with the only prerequisites being the ability to be themselves and not afraid to let their hair down and go for it. Maria highlighted that “These performances are about empowerment and shirking an old fashioned, stereotypical image. Pole Dancing is the hottest new fitness trend around, and the expo is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate to all women how easy it is to be spectacular!”

Anyone who is interested in taking part must agree to undergo a simple health screening in advance of the day, in order to reveal any specific needs and requirements. This may be achieved by contacting Maria on 695 303 685