Here, in the space normally reserved for the de rigueur dissection of worthy events and momentous trends in production and broadcasting, I invite you to let all that slip away, just this once. Let loose your reader’s sensibilities, let languish the focus of your mind’s eye, and hitch along on a brief but indulgent journey – a delectably rare peek at that other fest extraordinaire, The Sensual Banff.

Barely apparent as you cruise in, wrecked from the trip and grateful for darkness, The Sensual Banff surely makes itself felt.

It is the stranger you greet without planning, the delicious connection you make.The thrill that bypasses convention, the swift second look that you take. It is the smiling, bare heart rediscovered, though you’d feared it was long ago numb. The flush of so much held in common, each part perhaps more than the sum.

It is the needling of deals left unfinished, the glow when the paperwork’s done. The giddy high-fives over shooters, the throb when the head greets the sun. It is the pitch that you launched like a rocket, the buyer who dissed all your plans. The presale that screamed in from nowhere, the cheque-sweat that lathers your hands.

It is the grinding of hike-boots on gravel, the deer startled off by your skid. The barely-there mist in the morning, the childlike awe that you hid.

The chill in your grip on a golf club that warms with each client you schmooze. The anguish you fake on your scorecard, the deftness you hide as you lose.

It is the crick in your elbow propelling your name tag and title aloft. The bemusement your former boss shows you as he checks if your head has gone soft. It is the rush to your dazzled cerebrum, the program that dares you to wake. The boredom that dulls creative libido, the online excitement you fake.

It is business of pleasure, the address you left far behind. It is youth and tomorrow, the toddler ideas in your mind. It is day-two jet lag, the giddy potential you feel. The eyes that beseech you, the heart’s random passage, the moral conventions at heel.

The shaking of hands, the sentence unfinished, the limitless wonder you steal. The Sensual Banff.