Edmonton’s summer of rain has Folk Fest trucking in sand, Fringe hiring meteorologist

Edmonton’s signature outdoor music festival is trucking in tonnes of sand and pumping out water to avoid becoming the latest casualty of the city’s wettest summer on record.

Terry Wickham, who has been co-ordinating the outdoor Edmonton Folk Music Festival for nearly four decades, says this year’s event has likely been the hardest to plan because Edmonton has seen record-breaking rainfall.

“The festival site has taken over two feet of rain since June, so it’s very damp there right now,” Wickham said Tuesday, ahead of the four-day event’s first day on Thursday.

“We have about 200 tonnes of sand that we’re bringing in just so people can walk … and aren’t slipping and sliding on muck all over the place.”

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Environment Canada has said Edmonton had been saturated by 580 millimetres of rain as of last week, beating the record set in 1953 with 417 millimetres from June through August.

The rainstorms have flooded streets, campsites and dampened summer plans. More tornadoes than usual have also touched down across Alberta due to the severe weather. So far, 27 have been confirmed by the Northern Tornadoes Project.

This past weekend, inclement weather forced the Edmonton Heritage Festival to close early on Sunday due to more high winds and wet weather. The festival stayed open later on Monday in response.

1:53 City extends Edmonton Heritage Festival by one hour on final day

In July, stormy weather also cancelled or delayed the city’s Great Outdoors Comedy Festival, the KDays midway, a Post Malone concert and an appearance by the singer Kesha at the two-day Neon Skies festival in the Ice District.

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Weather has also led to temporarily closures of local attractions, such as the Telus World of Science, due to flooding.

Wickham said he’s confident his nearly sold-out Folk Fest will go ahead — but he has triple-checked the evacuation plan in case another rainstorm strikes.

“I’m concerned, but I’m also confident in our site crew,” he said.

He said organizers feel prepared because the festival’s success in previous years has allowed them “to put money away literally for a rainy day.”

“We won’t skimp on construction materials.”

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1:49 Alberta festivals coping with summer of storms

Megan Dart, the executive director of the Edmonton International Fringe Festival — North America’s largest such theatre event — said she and her team have taken extra steps in planning for the festival, which begins next week in Old Strathcona.

“This year we are preparing for a wider range of weather scenarios,” Dart said. “That preparation includes things like enhanced emergency response planning.”

The festival has also hired a meteorologist to track daily weather conditions.

“Edmontonians have experienced an extraordinary summer of severe weather,” she said.

“It has definitely changed how we’re preparing for festivals.”

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1:53 Edmonton sets new summer rainfall record

— With files from Karen Bartko, Global News