The Olde Towne Plaza in Okotoks will be bustling July 30th to August 1st.

The Foothills Theatre Company and the Dewdney Players are coming together to present the Olde Towne Arts Exchange Performing Arts Festival.

The festival features William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', the musical revue 'Once Upon a Park Bench' and plenty of other live entertainment.

Coordinator Derek Losoncy says it's a pay what you want event. "We want to get everybody down here to come out and enjoy the arts," he says, "so if you have a large family and you have a little bit of a restrictive budget just come down and feel free to put whatever you feel comfortable putting into the jar."

At the same time though, Losoncy is hoping people won't see it as a chance to take advantage. "As everybody knows it's not cheap to put on productions so our entire budget at this point in time is loss," he says, "so anything to help recoup that, to keep us going for our seasons, we have to keep generating money."

He says, "what most people don't understand about theatre is if you actually had to charge the ticket price that it actually cost to put on the production, nobody could afford to come."

Losoncy says they have entertainment for all age groups and he's hoping people will bring their blankets and their lawn chairs and join them for a great weekend.

For a complete schedule of performances visit the events page at www.okotoks.ca.