Watch: The city is working on getting more people outside during the cold winter months. Fletcher Kent has the details on its latest effort.
EDMONTON – City officials hope Edmonton’s latest winter festival and outdoor market will make the chilly season more “liveable” and enjoyable.
The city has been working with urban planners, designers, entrepreneurs and experts in winter design, business and entertainment to come up with Winter Shake-up Festival and Market.
“I think this is going to be a wonderful opportunity for Edmononians to come down and rediscover their Churchill Square and become reacquainted with a season that sometimes we shy away from,” said mayor Don Iveson.
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The free event will take place on Jan. 30 from noon to 8 p.m. at Churchill Square. It will include a snow slide, an outdoor winter market with over 35 local vendors, hot drinks, a hot food tent with local food trucks, kick sledding, skating, a 20-foot light installation and fire dancers.
“If you’re dressed for it, you can have a phenomenal time anywhere in our city,” added Iveson, “especially if there are things to do.
“If there’s fire to warm yourself by, if there are beverages that help you stay warm, whatever it is that makes winter liveable and fun for the whole family.”
The mayor and councillor Ben Henderson were on hand for Monday’s launch.
The Winter Shake-Up Festival and Market will mark the end of Edmonton’s International Winter Cities Conference, which is taking place at the Shaw Conference Centre Jan. 28-30. The conference will give community leaders, architects, tourism experts, government officials and city planners to meet and share ideas about how to create fun winter events, light up the darker months, make it easier to play outside and use snow in creative ways.
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The conference is one of the initiatives that came out of the city’s Winter City Strategy.
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