There’s a new look and a new location for this year’s Downtown Holiday Light Up in Edmonton.
The Edmonton Downtown Business Association is changing things up for 2022, moving the annual holiday celebration out of Churchill Square and onto Rice Howard Way.
“We’ve shifted the focus,” said Puneeta McBryan, executive director of the Edmonton Downtown Business Association.
“For many years it’s been on Churchill Square — longer than I’m even aware — definitely 20 years it’s been on Churchill Square. People probably remember the big one-night event that used to happen there with Santa Claus and a big stage.”
The biggest difference Edmontonians will see this year is that there will be no large Christmas tree set up, as the association has done for the past several years.
“There is no tree,” McBryan said. “We’ve been doing the tree on the square for many, many years and we found it’s a great draw, families go to the tree and then they leave. And it’s not really a great way to activate in our businesses, to draw people in to shop and dine and see what downtown actually has to offer.
“For us and supporting the businesses and driving the downtown economy, the tree in the square in front of city hall isn’t really the best use of our resources.
“The square is great but it’s just the square.”
Instead, the shift will focus a few blocks down the road to Rice Howard Way. On Dec. 3 for the big Holiday Light Up event, there will be events, music, free hot beverages, Instagrammable experiences and large light installations.
“We’ve rethought what we’re doing to gather people together. It’s really about supporting the businesses downtown. It’s really about showing off some of our most beautiful hidden gems and Rice Howard Way is definitely one of them,” McBryan said.
“We’re going to be creating a fully immersive holiday constellation experience on Rice Howard Way. It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s being imagined by a few different artists.”
One of those artists is Gabs. She’s created a life-sized bison named Bryson, which will be part of the experience.
“I basically built him for fun,” she said.
“Last January, I built a life-sized woolly mammoth that was 10 feet by eight feet that I travelled across the city on skis and I had so much fun with that and I thought I need a piece that’s just mine that I can do whatever I want with. So I built Bryson and he’s on roller skates.”
Bryson is filled with lights. His horns light up in rainbow colours and his body lights up in a warm white. Bryson the bison is the fourth piece in her large lantern collection. In addition to Bryson and the woolly mammoth, she’s also created a life-sized baby humpback whale that’s 30 feet long and a moth with a 12-foot wingspan. She’s currently working on her fifth piece — a polar bear named Claire.
“She will be standing on her hind legs, so she’s going to be nine feet tall and about three feet wide,” Gabs said.
McBryan said the City of Edmonton still has some holiday plans for the downtown, but wasn’t able to speak to the details.
A spokesperson with the City of Edmonton confirmed it won’t be installing a tree this year. However, the city is working on free, family-friendly seasonal activations in Churchill Square.
“We will also be announcing some exciting news about this year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations in the days to come. Stay tuned for more details,” said Karen McDonnell.
McBryan hopes the new Holiday Light Up experience will bring new life to a different area of the downtown core.
“We’re hoping that we’re going to see a whole lot of Edmontonians who have never really seen this beautiful street and maybe haven’t visited some of the incredible businesses here. We’re hoping we’re going to introduce this area to a whole new audience,” she explained.
“I’m just hoping that we have a lot of discovery and a lot of people come down to check it out who have never really seen it, and maybe haven’t been downtown in a long time.”
Free parking will be available for Downtown Holiday Light Up visitors on Dec. 3 at Edmonton City Centre East Parkade from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. More information on the event can be found on the Edmonton Downtown Business Association’s website.
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