Episode 57: Sarah Erickson

Sarah Erickson is a busy entrepeneur.

Photo courtesy of Glenn Kelly.

Not only is she the event coordinator with her own Sparrow Tree Productions, she also started the event-and-eco-friendly Green Calgary.

Sparrow Tree Productions works with artists, musicians and does special event production and publicity in town, which Erickson describes as, “an everchanging project that started about a year and a half ago over coffee.”

She’s recently been putting on shows out of her own home – about two concerts a month – which started as a housewarming party. In fact, they’d just celebrated their first birthday with the Cliff House!

She says the main difference is between hosting events at third-party locations and her own house is “the amount of connection and energy you put into the event.”

At an alternate venue, she says you bring yourself and things you do to the venue, whereas when you put on an event from home you have the opportunity to share your space with other people. She says that you also have to work a bit with your neighbourhood – including acknowledging their concerns, and even look to include them.

“The main focus of what I’m doing is making sure everybody has the opportunity to contribute,” says Erickson.

“There’s something in each of us that attaches to the sound. I cannot tell you exactly what it is that allows me to connect with music, because it hasn’t always been that way. Whether it’s from your soul, or your heart or your imagination or somewhere else – I’m not sure where that connection lies.”

Erickson also started the Green Team, inspired by her work with the Calgary Folk Music Festival.

“The fondest memories come from meeting the people that I have [at the Calgary Folk Music Festival] – they’ve become some of my dearest friends and inspirations.”

“It’s a dirty job, it’s a tough job – you’re working with trash all day. The best part of it is that you’re educating people on their (environmental) impact… Talking to people about their garbage is actually quite fascinating, because a lot of people don’t understand.”

With her current project, she plans to “inject as much love into it while we can, and while it’s ours,” and says her most important goal right now is “acquiring a really solid group of people who support what [she’s] doing, and are willing to devote time or energy… without really knowing what the payoff is supposed to be.”