We were very honoured to perform taiko during Intermission at Centre Ice at the Saddledome for Multicultural Night!
We arrived early to get our drums set up, and we were placed in the crowd to play during the hockey game. Prior to singing the National Anthem, many cultural groups were announced and proudly carried their flag onto the ice, including Japan!
During the second period, we were moved down to the zamboni entrance, and waited. When it was time, we pushed our drums out into the middle of the ice on a large piece of carpet and prepared to perform. It was a pretty amazing feeling to be walking into that huge space and look up into the crowd.
We only had a short time on the ice before they had to send out the zambonis, so we played a shortened arrangement of Dokokara by Yuta Kato. We would also like to thank the Consulate-General of Japan in Calgary and Kaede Cultural Society, for loaning us happi to wear for this performance!
The Calgary Hitmen were so kind to send us professional video of our performance, and you can see it up on our Media Page.
Here's a link to our "behind-the-scenes" video: https://youtu.be/I3Ip1kWomBo