My plans for Sunday afternoon involved heading to a BBQ near the Drive, but being the good ADD candidate I am, I thought I'd make a quick stop at the Community Arts Workshop's 14th annual Alice in Wonderland Festival + Mad Tea Party at Trout Lake. I only planned on staying for a wee bit -- after all, I had places to be (some would say I was "late, late for a very important date"). Besides, from afar this seemed like a family event, and I had my doubts about roaming around kid territory all by my lonesome.

But as I started wheeling my bike down the path to the festival, this section of Trout Lake lit up. In minutes, I was transported to a bonafide fantasy land, where grass actually seemed greener, and everything just seemed to sparkle. Tea Party attendees were decked out as variations of Alice and other characters from the timeless Lewis Caroll tale, playing croquet and picnicking around the makeshift East Van Wonderland. Meanwhile, the actual players of the festival weaved in and out of the tapestry, never forgetting who they were even if there was only one audience member standing within listening distance of them. It was the Disneyland vacation I'd never been granted as a child, and I dropped my bike down forthwith to get in on the action.

This was outdoor theatre at its finest, using every workable inch of the territory as a stage, transporting audience members from one world of nonsense to another and providing better staging than some professional Shakespeare-in-the-Park productions I've witnessed. Aside from the poor setting of the Duchess segment, where it was relatively difficult for most people to see and hear, the Trout Lake location was a great back-drop for the story. The actors were largely animated and engaging to watch -- namely the Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, and the Duchess -- and even subtle Lewis Carroll performed well in his supervisory role, playing the quiet lurking authorly type in the background during the entire show. It was a grand spectacle, well executed, with a seamless transition between acts enhanced by musical group Toot-a-lute, who provided a great soundtrack of balkan, celtic, and latin jazz infused marching music.

As for the kids in attendance, I couldn't even imagine the kind of high they were experiencing. To keep children enraptured for over three hours is a daunting task -- I barely have the patience to engage my own nephews for more than 15 minutes. However, the group pulled it off and saved many a parent's nerves in the process. Kids swarmed around Alice, not at all frightened to be a part of the spotlight, forgetting about the hundreds of people watching them because they were with the love of their life.

I didn't realize how much I'd been caught up in the affair as well until I looked at the time and realized three hours had passed and I'd missed my BBQ date. But I was strangely okay with not having stuck to the schedule. Maybe it was my way of avoiding the real world for a spell. And for the first time in a long while, I felt like I truly escaped, into a fantasy world that made me and every ragtag mad, crazy, and nonsensical person feel like we could actually let loose, laugh, and be whoever we wanted to be. Sigh.