Thanks to everyone who came to Blink: Urban Picnic tonight! Sharon and I will write something up soon, but you don’t have to wait – Brittney already has a recap posted!
Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:
- The 31st Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival wrapped up today and this year’s edition smashed all previous records. A total of 680,000 people visited, and a total of 112,006 tickets were sold marking the first time that sales generated more than $1 million in revenue for artists!
- Finally: GPS and automated stop announcements will be added to 45 buses next year as part of an ETS pilot project.
- I was really pleased to see the Farming in the City tours full of Edmontonians today, all wanting to get a first-hand look at the agricultural land in the northeast. Global covered the tours here.
- In a surprise announcement this week, Concordia High School announced it is closing permanently.
- The EPS has added six more beat officers along Jasper Avenue. They’ll be proactively working with the community instead of just reacting to crime.
- The Petroleum Club has a new general manager, and he wants to turn the club around. Charles Rothman says “sadly, the handsome building has been a little neglected over the years and we have plans to restore its charm and modernize in some areas.”
- Taylor Hall and the Oilers have agreed on a new seven-year contract extension with an average annual value (AAV) of $6 million. Let’s hope there’s hockey this season!
- Don’t miss this: ETS, the Edmonton Arts Council, and Edmonton’s First Nations community unveiled 15 panels of original art created for the South LRT.
- Edmonton has a new neighbourhood and it has been named in honour of the founder of Edmonton’s Fringe, Brian Paisley.
- You might have heard that Travel Alberta and Edmonton Tourism decided to pay for former Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and her fiancé JP Rosenbaum to visit our city. The primary reason presumably was to drum up media coverage in other markets, but so far that strategy has failed miserably. The only organization that has written about the trip is the Edmonton Journal. Worse still, the couple came all the way here and ended up eating at Joey’s. So much for promoting Edmonton’s growing food scene!
- Check out these locally made iPhone cases called knottycase.
- Despite an increase in calls due to an infestation found in Medicine Hat, no rats have been found in Edmonton.
- Great piece by Tony Cashman on the High Level Bridge.
- Good question from Dave: Is Edmonton’s former Capital Health board being targeted by a Calgary-led witch-hunt?
- There’s still time to nominate a Scotiabank Game Changer – a program to help uncover local community heroes.
We have had some crazy weather lately. There was so much hail on Thursday it looked like it was snowing!
Here are some upcoming events:
- Crafting Type runs all week at the Robbins Health Learning Centre.
- I was going to write that this week was the final Tuesdays on the Terrace event at the Art Gallery of Alberta, but it has been extended until September 18!
- Edmonton’s City Hall turns 20 on Tuesday, so stop in to celebrate with free cupcakes and guided tours. Fun fact: this is our third city hall.
- The next Capital Ideas Edmonton event takes place on Wednesday, this time after work. Join other local business owners for a mixer at Yellowhead Brewery.
- Another favorite summer festival coming up – Symphony Under the Sky kicks off on Friday!
- Looking for something fun to do outside on the weekend? Get Lost For Hunger at the Edmonton Corn Maze!
- Weather permitting, the next Movies on the Square evening is Friday.
- On September 8, the Rock Skipping Open will take place at the Laurier Park Boat Launch at 3pm. There’s a $20 entry fee, 50% of which goes to prizes and 50% of which goes to support the Edmonton Food Bank. For rules, details, and to register, email rockskipopen@gmail.com or get in touch with David.
- The Parkdale Cromdale Community League is hosting a Cromdale Hotel Demolition Party on September 16.
Goodbye Cromdale Hotel by Darren Kirby
MasterMaq's Blog 
Ugh…I groaned when I heard about the visit from the former “Bachelorette” couple. Surely they could have found someone better to visit, and surely they could have done a better job in showcasing the best the city had to offer (like making them a reservation at a romantic local restaurant, like Red Ox Inn). I know Travel Alberta and Tourism Edmonton meant well, but what a seriously terrible idea that was….
Yeah, I can’t seem to find anyone except the Journal that wrote about them being here. And I would presume, especially with the success of this year’s festival, the point was to generate external media coverage.
Perhaps next time a less obvious festival should be considered (the Bachelorette attending Accordion fest!) or a celebrity known by their actual name that would pique the interest of national and U.S. media?
It may also show the tough sell to brand Edmonton a “festival city” to outsiders. When every other large city has a jazz, fringe, folk fest every summer, it’s hard to stand out.
All good points Jeff. I’m still not convinced that we need celebrities to attract external media coverage.
$20,000 and the story about Travel Alberta defending that expenditure is actually getting more coverage. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/Travel+Alberta+defends+spent+trip+reality+stars/7161761/story.html Still nothing coming up in Google from the U.S. or even across Canada about Edmonton’s tourism appeal. Ouch.
Do you know how the Fringe comes up with it’s numbers Mack? 680,000 ‘people visited’, with only 112,000 tickets sold? What did the other 568,000 people do?
Keep in mind that is visitors to the Fringe side, but not necessarily people. They visited the grounds, maybe to eat, maybe to check out the buskers. I think they just count people walking through the gates, so there’s probably quite a number of duplicates in that number.
During the Fringe I’ll often ask people “Hey, have you been to the Fringe?” and they say “Oh yeah, we were there yesterday!” and I say “Cool, what did you see?” and they say “Oh we didn’t go to a show, we just checked out the buskers”. Happens ALL the time.
I hope that the ETS pilot project is deemed a success, especially the part about the automatic stop announcements. Having experienced that in Vancouver this summer, I have to say that it is really helpful when you’re riding an unfamiliar route!
I love that there is a Cromdale demolition party. I think I might just have to go to that.