It was another big day of Alberta touring for Cantiga and Cantare! It would be hard to top all of the excitement of Day 2, so let’s get to making more memories!

Performances

Our morning began with more Singing for Seniors! We visited The Wellington and Meadowlands by Optimum Living to sing for a crowd of excited residents. As always, we were thrilled to be able to go out into the audience and speak to these amazing people after the singing was finished.

After our morning of concerts, we loaded the bus back up in Medicine Hat and drove across the city to visit MEDALTA POTTERIES at the Medalta Clay District

About the Medalta Clay District

Medalta was a huge industrial operation for more than 40 years and its factory has been restored into a working museum that guides you through the historic process, introduces you to artists-in-residence and displays old and new pottery.

Using clay brought by rail from Saskatchewan (the local clay was not suitable for pottery), Medalta produced water coolers, crocks, butter churns, mixing bowls, and bean pots that they supplied to kitchens across Canada.

These aren’t just historic kilns; they also did double duty as cheap accommodations during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The cooling kilns made a cozy place to sleep for people travelling across Canada looking for work. According to the museum, as many as 40 men could sleep in each of the enormous kilns, and these “guests” were welcome as long as they were gone by the time the factory was ready to start work in the morning.

The company closed the factory in 1954 and, while a few attempts were made to revive the site for commercial use, it wasn’t until the 1970s that a campaign was launched to preserve the site for its historical value. The Historic Clay District is now a National Historic Site, with the sprawling Medalta Potteries complex restored as a museum, working pottery, and state-of-the-art ceramic studio residency. You can visit the Old Factory (pictured here) where clay was produced, and the Turning Room, where the pottery was made (look for the enormous crocks that could likely accommodate a dozen people, had they to decided to use it as a hot tub).

The Old Factory is a now-silent tangle of chutes, conveyor belts, buckets and gears. Wander around and peer at the many fascinating contraptions that would have carried out various stages of clay production; from grinding raw materials to kneading clay and making glazes.

Cantare and Cantiga split back into their ensembles to tour the factory, and even had a chance to make their own clay creations which will be fired in the kilns in the coming weeks!

Touring Tips: Happy Horizontal Hour

Singing on its own is a VERY tiring activity! Singing while traveling, eating, and living together is even more exhausting still! One of the most important parts of a Cantare tour experience is HAPPY HORIZONTAL HOUR - Choristers get a short hour in the day to rest, sleep, and get ready for the second half of the day. HHH is a skill that we build all the way back from Cantiga retreats so our choristers are skilled power-sleepers by the time they are managing the demands of a Cantare tour. Our older Cantares help set the tone for our younger Cantigas, and they’re all straight to bed!

Awards Night

We believe that an essential part of our touring experience is taking time at the end of the journey to honour all of the individuals who contributed to the wonderful experience. During awards night, chaperones present their choristers with their CHORISTER AWARDS which honour their personalities and contributions to the group over the past few days.