River World returns for final show

By Dan Hilborn
Published Nov. 26, 2005


Get your tickets early for the final performance of a fascinating world-renowned show that had its start in Burnaby.

Mark Angelo, head of the BCIT fish, wildlife and recreation program, will be ending a two-year North American tour of his highly popular River World slide show at the Shadbolt Centre on Wednesday night.

This is the same show that recently played to a sold-out audience in Washington D.C. and saw more than 500 people turned away at the doors when it last played at the Shadbolt Centre in January 2004.

The show takes the audience on a whirlwind tour of some of the wildest rivers in the world, as seen through the eyes of Angelo, Burnaby's own internationally acclaimed river expert.

"In effect, we go on a river trip around the whole world," Angelo said. "It has a strong conservation theme and it promotes greater awareness."

The slide show, which includes photographs of more than 50 different rivers on six continents, is based on dozens of paddling and fly fishing trips that Angelo has taken over the past two decades.

The presentation opens with the song In The River, composed by Angelo's friend and North Vancouver native Jeff Gibbons.

"I heard the song shortly before the first River World show and felt that it would make a wonderful fit," he said. "The words are based on the Capilano and Seymour rivers, close to where Jeff grew up, and they talk about the importance of rivers and how they can influence people in positive ways."

The show, which has been sponsored by the National Geographic Society, includes photos of rivers that run through jungles, deserts and mountains, and is intended to help its audience connect to the waterways in their own part of the world. Among the rivers photographed for the show are the Amazon, Yangtze, Nile and Mekong.

"There's big, well-known rivers, but there's also lesser-known, smaller rivers. There is also a mix of music, images and stories of my own encounters and experiences on the water.

"First and foremost, my hope is that anyone who sees the program is encouraged to spend more time on and along rivers," Angelo said. "I also think the show encourages people to think of rivers as the arteries of our planet and the heart of our ecosystem.

"I strongly believe that if you spend time on a river that there is something very special about that," he said. "It brings out the kid in everyone and it totally refreshes the spirit."

Angelo said some of his favourite stories, which may be retold during the presentation, include his own encounter with hippopotami in Africa. Much of the dialogue in the slideshow revolves around the challenges being faced by indigenous people living near the world's wild rivers.

One special guest who will be in the audience but not speaking during the show is Les Jickling, who was the first person to ever complete a nonpowered descent of the Blue Nile, which flows out of Ethiopia before it meets up with the White Nile and flows into the Mediterranean Sea.

Angelo is happy to be doing the last River World show in Burnaby after a two-year tour that has seen it travel to Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph, Banff, Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles.

Since creating River World, the website - www.riverworld. bcit.ca - has received more than 50 million hits.

"I've really enjoyed the tour, but I'm thrilled to do the last show in Burnaby," he said. "It's my home and I think it's an appropriate place to finish up, in a city with a whole host of wonderful small streams and beside the world's greatest salmon river."

River World has its final performance at the Shadbolt Centre for the arts at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 30. Tickets are $10 in advance only from the Shadbolt box office at 604-205-3000.