📅Saturday, May 31st, 2025
⏰ 9 am
📍Meeting Point: Gazebo on Roos Island in Victoria/Willow River Park
https://maps.app.goo.gl/b4EX35Qe35Ewit4z9
💵FREE!
Creators: Sydney Lancaster and Geoff Martin
Dance/Aerial Performer: Erika Lui
CHANNEL MIGRATION is a 13-station audiowalk along Schneider Creek, from DTK to Doon, where the Creek joins the Grand River.
This launch event will feature a 14km urban hike (with several exit/entry points) and two dance performances—the first at a designated rest stop in the forest at Homer Watson Park and the second at the final bridge crossing in Doon.
Each station’s soundscape blends field recordings, creek-inspired music, and brief narrative reflections to consider Schneider Creek’s ongoing relationship with the human and more-than-human communities that live beside and within the path of the water. Schneider Creek is the lifeblood of the place we now call Kitchener: a glacial stream shaping the valley it cuts between the city's sandhills; the main route along the Mississauga trail (now Mill St) to the large Chonnoton village and earthworks in the Cherry Park neighbourhood; an industrial sewage drain from the tanneries, abattoirs, and factories; the primary stormwater drain for 67% of the city's land area.
The Creek has been exploited as a resource, extensively modified, straightened & partially contained in buried tunnels and open concrete culverts. These dramatic changes to the Creek’s course and flow are important elements of our city’s story, particularly now that a one kilometre stretch of the Creek is being ‘renaturalized’ to mitigate flood risks and improve urban ecosystem health in the face of climate change.
Channel Migration invites listeners to attend to the Creek’s history and consider the ways it is inextricably bound to our wider community, including both human and more-than-human lives who depend on these waters. Schneider Creek’s story is our story, for good and for ill.
Launch Event/Urban Hike Details:
Meeting Point: Gazebo on Roos Island in Victoria/Willow River Park
Google Map links:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/b4EX35Qe35Ewit4z9 (gazebo)
Larger Map:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/RBJp2dy5XmNgrhLg8 (park context)
Urban Hike: 8:45am ~ 1:45pm
● 8:30–8:45am: meet at gazebo to receive audiowalk instructions and trifold map
● 9am: opening welcome, begin walking
● ~11-11:25am: Bio Break #1, Tim Horton’s at Courtland Ave./Shelly Dr., south of Block Line
Station
● ~12:30pm: Aerial Performance & Bag Lunch Break at Rest Stop #2: Homer Watson Park
(parking available, Trail Head on Wabanaki Dr.)
● ~1pm: Optional Bio Break (Tim Horton’s at Homer Watson Blvd & Pioneer Dr.)
● ~1:30pm: Final station & dance performance at Old Mill Rd. Bridge.
● Return to DTK by Bus #10, Bus #16, or by car (if parked in advance)
Bring:
● Good walking shoes and socks
● Smartphone and headphones (or small bluetooth speaker for group listening)
● Friends and family to walk and talk with between stations
● Water and bag lunch/snacks
● Sunscreen/hat/jacket/bug spray
● GRT transit pass or $3.75 for single bus fare
A Note on Accessibility and Exit/Entry points:
● The 14km route for CHANNEL MIGRATION follows designated sidewalks, paved walkways, and widened gravel trails. Participants will be crossing roads at controlled intersections at several points.
● One 25m stretch is on flat grass where no sidewalk is provided.
● Feel free to join or leave the walk as you feel able. There are several exit/entry points at which participants may wish to meet the group walking the full length or bow out of the full
hike.
● The following ION stations and bus routes provide exit/entry points for those who wish a shorter walk, or to do the walk in shorter sections:
o Mill Street iON Station
o Block Line iON Station
o Route 6 (Courtland Ave)
o Route 10 (Doon, Mill Park Dr. to Fairway Rd.l)
o Route 16 (Conestoga College, Homer Watson Blvd, to Waterloo Public Square)
🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊
This event is part of Open Ears Festival 2025, which takes place May 29-June 1, 2025.
This experimental sound festival brings some of the world’s highest caliber musicians to Kitchener-Waterloo, featuring local, national and international award-winning soloists and ensembles.
Go to www.openears.ca to view the full festival schedule and purchase your festival pass. Early bird prices available until April 30th!
You may also like the following events from Open Ears Festival of Music & Sound:
- Next Thursday, 29th May, 05:30 pm, Synth workshop 1 w/ Alejandro Franco Briones, Iván López Pineda, & Diego Villaseñor de Cortina #OE25 in Kitchener
- Next Thursday, 29th May, 08:00 pm, Null Point presents Relations, not Blank Slates #OE25 in Kitchener
- Next Friday, 30th May, 05:30 pm, Synth Workshop 2 w/ Alejandro Franco Briones, Iván López Pineda, & Diego Villaseñor de Cortina #OE25 in Kitchener
Also check out other
Festivals in Linton,
Entertainment events in Linton,
Trips & Adventurous Activities in Linton.
