The "Away" Project

When we “throw things away,” where do they go?

Where is this mythical “Away?”

And what happens to our things when they get there?

For its 35th anniversary in 2025, the Silver Skate Festival launched an ambitious and timely artistic creation project that asks these very questions.

The project was nominated for the 2025 Sterling Award for Outstanding Production for Young Audiences while designers Even Gilchrest, Tessa Stamp, and Whittyn Jason won the award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement, Theatre for Young Audiences.

Keep an eye out for remounts of this incredible production!

Read the story of The World of Away and explore its three spaces: Airtopia, Oceanic Bliss, and The Land of Blasé.

Silver Skate is using art to reexamine our consumption practices. Three local artists have used the waste produced at local festivals and events (including Silver Skate) to design a series of sculptures that make up the World of Away. A team of actors has created stories, songs, and characters in response to these sculptures. Now you can live out those stories and meet those characters in this interactive adventure for all ages. Each sculpture and each character offer a creative way to reconsider our relationship with the materials we use and discard in our daily lives. Find out more about the creative team here.

During the 2025 festival, audiences were able to interact with the characters, explore the world, and help to grow and build the sculptures. Each sculpture and each character in the world offered a creative way to reconsider our relationship with the materials we use and discard in our daily lives. Find out more about the creative team here.

The project is inspired, in part, by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ideals that Silver Skate is trying to live up to in all its work. These 17 goals include Responsible Consumption & Production, Affordable and Clean Energy, Good Health & Well-Being, Clean Water & Sanitation, Sustainable Cities & Communities, and Climate Action. Learn more about the many real-world issues that informed this project here.

This innovative, design and dramaturgy-led project has received generous support from the community. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, many organizations have worked with Silver Skate to have waste they produce included in the installation, including The Tesserae, Blenderz, Roasti, Juchli Engineering, Edmonton International Street Performers Festival, Dark at Fort Edmonton Park, and Taste of Edmonton.