KIDS POP: NO SLEEP TILL BEDTIME

Kids Pop art activity
Photo by Richmond Lam

Is your little critter already getting sick of being passed from family members to babysitters and back again while Ma and/or Pa go on their annual show-hopping jaunt? Or are you just looking for something cool and cost-efficient to do with the family this weekend?

Get excited, because Kids Pop has you covered either way, inviting the short-pants set to get hip to the Pop Montreal mood.

“As the proud owner of a shiny new four-year-old, I have become much more interested in children in general, and [in] ways to entertain them and to stimulate their creativity and interests,” says Kids Pop coordinator Gen Heistek.

Heistek, who was more than impressed with last year’s Kids Pop programming, happens to share a daycare with Pop founder and creative director Dan Seligman. She offered to help out one afternoon at the park, and quickly found herself running the show.

“One of the things I love about Pop is that they’re always trying new things and trying new angles, and they aren’t afraid to experiment,” says Heistek (who bashfully describes herself as being “on the elder side of the Mile End hipster crowd”)

“We’ve realized that lot of the parents who are interested in attending Pop as a festival have kids on the younger side,” she says.

As such, this year’s programming has been “geared down” toward children eight and under, though Heistek also says there are several age-appropriate activities for kids up to 12 or so.

New on the roster this year is Saturday’s Kids Pop Swap (1 p.m., 51 Bernard W. $5 entry for adults, free for kids under 12), where you can score an upgrade on your kids’ swag for next to nothing.

“[People can] show up at the space with 20 items or less, and for every usable item — it gets vetted, obviously — they get one ticket to swap anything,” Heistek explains, adding that arts activities will be available to keep the young’uns from getting bored while you swap their gear.

“It’s five bucks to get in, but, optimistically, what you can walk away with is a whole new wardrobe for your kid!”

Saturday at noon and 1 p.m., there are two consecutive Monster Team T-Shirt Workshops (Film Box, Quartiers Pop, 3450 St-Urbain, free), t-shirt-printing workshops with local artists such as Rick Trembles and Rupert Bottenberg gettin’ freaky with vinyl cuts imprints.

And on Sunday, the Kids Animation Workshop (10 a.m., 5587 Parc, free), for children nine and up, teaches your seed some stop-motion film techniques as they make a short movie. Both of these events require pre-registration, and are both filling up quickly, so act fast.

Kids Pop in the Park (1 p.m., Parc de la Petite-Italie, St-Laurent at St-Zotique, free)  goes down Saturday afternoon, with a BBQ and acts like Lederhosen Lucil and Elephant Stone.

“[The bands playing] have all been selected for being awesome bands, but also being appropriate for little ears,” Heistek says. “They’ll be keeping the language and the harsh tunes to a minimum.”

Sunday, though, is the big jam. Kids Pop, Don’t Stop (1 p.m., Montreal Chinese Presbyterian Church, 5560 Hutchison, free)  is an afternoon-long indoor affair that sounds almost like a Warhol vernissage for children. A tent installation, a homemade electronics booth, hand-drawn temp tattoos by a ton of local artists, yoga classes, breakdance lessons and, as always, tons of arts and crafts. It’s safe to say you won’t just be “dropping in.”

Heistek is also stoked on the first ever Kids Pop colouring book, wherein 20 local artists worked the theme of “Flora and Fauna” into something a little different than the ol’ Dollarama sticker book.

“We’ve condensed [the weekend] into, like, a Kids Pop pill, with two days of intense good times!” Heistek says.

“It’s meant to actually provide a sort of mini-experience for the kids over two days. They can do the different things, and sort of pick and choose what they like, just like you do at Pop — but before bedtime, unlike Pop!” ■