02 Jul Virtual Peony Festival
You know there’s disruption caused by Covid 19 when the in-person Oshawa Peony Festival is cancelled. Oshawa is home to a 300+ peony flower botanical garden that’s close to Arena St & Bond St W. just outside of the downtown core. Every year during the month of June thousands of peony enthusiasts gather at the outdoor gardens for the short blooming season of the king of flowers. Alas, gatherings were all cut down to the stem in 2020 so the City of Oshawa pivoted and went virtual. The City of Oshawa invited Empty Cup Media to film the gardens 4 times over the month of June and edit the videos quickly for posting while the garden was still hot. Colin also visited 2 private gardens of senior members of the Peony Society of Canada to learn a few tips about owning peonies.
Colin had to carry a map of the gardens with him while he was filming so that flowers could be identified during the edit. So that meant carrying a pen (which exploded during one of the film days) and writing file names next to the tiny location on the map. The third week of June is when most of the peonies were in bloom so that was a challenging week to stay on top of the flower naming. But we got them all named eventually.
The virtual Peony Festival also won an award for adapting to new times and we are very happy for the city for winning. Check out the videos and remember the summer time in it’s flowery glory.
