Oh wow, I’m totally blown away this morning after the incredible evening we had last night. From start to finish, we felt thought of, well taken care of and entertained as the evening sped by too fast – I want to go again!

Organized by Hilary Abel and her team, the evening began with registration in the caboose – complete with boarding pass and info package beautifully designed by MFX Partners.  We then mingled with our fellow passengers and boarded the train to wait excitedly for our departure.  I had a chance to visit every car in the train and enjoy meeting lots of new people along the way.  Here’s what I found:

• Hackerspace – featuring Deadbeatblast working with Chip Tunes & Creations by KWArtzlab (in essence, an amazing DJ playing tunes off of his Nintendo Gameboy.. yes, seriously awesome… and an artist featuring creative digital clocks)
• The Gallery – featuring the work of Jennifer Gough of Mind’s Eye Studio (If you haven’t seen Jennifer’s paintings, don’t mind my terrible iPhone pics, check out her website)
• Naked Car – featuring the music of KW Symphony Youth Orchestra & Life Drawing by KW|AG (Yes, there really was an old naked guy being drawn in here.  Although I didn’t personally spend much time in here, the car was a hit with every space being filled with artists drawing at the tables)
• Dine & Design – featuring culinary art by Nick & Nat’s Uptown 21 & a new look at design by MFX Partners (yummy yummy food & & inspirational wall of post-it’s. Passengers were encouraged to write about what would make a better community – I’m excited to see the results of this!)
• I♥VideoArt – featuring a CAFKA installation by Jillian McDonald (hilariously and wonderfully thought out.. this is a good one.  The car featured a movie about zombies during the entire trip.  When we arrived back to Waterloo, the train was literally attacked by Zombies. The people in my car easily went along with the story, screaming and being ‘terrified’ by the zombies – love love love it!)
• During our approx. hour long stay in St. Jacobs, we spent time in the train house (not sure what to call it – there were huge locomotives under a roof) listening to the fabulous Vacuity play a set and admiring artworks by Aaron Bartley.  Outside was an interactive graffiti display with passengers adding their bit.

After arriving back to Waterloo and saving ourselves from the Zombies, we enjoyed an Afterparty at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery with music, food & drink.  I can’t even begin to explain the sheer wonder at the amazingness of this event.  Hilary, seriously, stellar.

Praise for Hilary Abel:

Only a seriously creative mind could have come up with an idea like this

I want to do this again, but how could we ever top something so amazing?!

I could probably go on forever with this, but I suppose you’ve gotten the hint – everyone had an amazing time and we’re all ridiculously proud and honoured to have such a talented friend in H.

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