Tag: festivals

Introducing dEdmonton – Canada’s Halloween Festival

Tonight was the kick-off meeting for dEdmonton, a new festival to celebrate all things Halloween! dEdmonton grew out of Christian Nelson’s presentation on reclaiming the word “deadmonton” as well as a general desire to celebrate Halloween and everything that goes along with it. The goal is to become Canada’s Halloween Festival, and for Edmonton to be known as the Halloween Capital of North America!

That won’t happen right away, of course. This year the focus is on establishing the brand and setting the stage for bigger and better things in the years to come. Tonight we introduced the name and nearly-finalized logo:

About thirty people attended the meeting to learn more about the idea and to offer their support. Another thirty or so couldn’t make it tonight but are also enthusiastic about the festival. I was fortunate to get involved back in November, and have been helping with the web side of things. The website will be especially important this year as our primary platform for tying the various Halloween events together. We’ve got some cool stuff in the works for it.

Our Co-Coordinators, Darryl Plunkie and Christian Nelson, have done a fantastic job of getting the right people together to get dEdmonton off the ground (the group is affectionately known as the Council of E-ville – Derek Clayton and Kenn Bur are also leading the charge, and Kevin Nienhuis and myself have been helping where we can). They’re really inclusive, and are eager to talk to anyone interested in the idea. It’s worth noting also that everyone involved so far has been volunteering their time! It’s quite impressive to see how far we’ve come in such a short period of time.

dEdmonton 2009

The main event will be 13 Days of Mayhem, running from October 19th until October 31st, 2009. The idea is to connect with the many Halloween-related events that already take place in Edmonton and area, to pool resources and do some cross-promotion. Let’s make people aware of all the cool things that already happen, and set the stage for an even bigger and better dEdmonton in the future!

What happened to the ‘a’?

You might be wondering why it’s called ‘dEdmonton’ and not ‘deadmonton’. A lot of thought went into that decision:

  • If we’re reclaiming the word, let’s get rid of the negative connotation that “dead” carries
  • dEdmonton is a new word, something that’s unique (and not already used elsewhere on the web)
  • dEdmonton is just Edmonton with a ‘d’ in front of it – we want this to be a showcase for the city

At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about ‘dEdmonton’ but now I really like it. I think it was the right decision, for sure.

How can you help?

This event is still in the early stages of planning, so if you have any ideas, feedback, or even just random thoughts, send them to info@dedmonton.com.

Beyond that, we need you to help us spread the word. We’ve just got a placeholder (and very cool teaser poster) up at http://www.dedmonton.com but we’re already working on a proper site, so check back soon. You can also join the Facebook group, and follow us on Twitter. Tell your friends!

Edmonton Winter Light 2009

winter light 2009 Today marks the start of Winter Light 2009, a new festival designed to “usher in the winter season” and “enjoy Edmonton’s winter spirit.” The opening ceremonies were held tonight in Churchill Square and City Hall. It couldn’t have happened on a day more representative of winter than today – temperatures were around –22 C (and –32 C with the wind chill) and we received a fresh dump of snow during the day!

Sharon and I made our way to Churchill Square at about 7:45pm and found it mostly empty except for the volunteers. Despite having a number of warming tents and fire/heat displays, most people were inside City Hall enjoying the free food (provided by NAIT) and the entertainment of Le Fuzz and others.

Winter Light 2009Winter Light 2009 - Inside City Hall

We wandered around the square for a bit and eventually found the information tent where they were offering free hot chocolate to anyone who brought their own cup. Great way to be a little more environmentally responsible! The hot chocolate tasted great and allowed us to stay outside a little more before heading indoors.

Sharon was excited to see what culinary delights NAIT was offering so we headed straight for the tables of food. Unfortunately the good feeling we had by bringing our own mug for hot chocolate disappeared when we found the disposable plates and spoons being used for the food! Ah well – everything was very tasty!

We spent some time enjoying the performances, and managed to catch the official “welcome” to Winter Light with one of the organizers and Councillor Ben Henderson (Councillor Kim Krushell was also in attendance):

Next up for Winter Light is Deep Freeze on 118th Avenue, which takes place this weekend on January 10th and 11th. Activities include outdoor curling, free hay rides, snowshoeing, snow sculpting workshops, and of course, free food! On January 15th the sixth annual Ice on Whyte festival gets underway.

Although there were far more people out for the much colder New Year’s Eve than there were tonight, I wouldn’t call the festival’s success into question just yet. The main events are what will really draw people in, and tonight was basically just free marketing for those events.

I’m excited to see how the next 10 weeks unfold – I’d say Winter Light 2009 is off to a fairly good start. You can see my photos from this evening at Flickr, and some video at YouTube.

UPDATE: Sharon posted her thoughts and a bit more about the food at her blog.

Critiquing Edmonton’s Winter Light website

winter light 2009 Two weeks ago, I wondered where the website was for Edmonton’s new winter festival. A few days after that post, the official website was launched. Now that I’ve had a chance to look at it, I thought I’d post a bit of a critique. But first, here’s some new information that was released at the same time:

Opening Ceremonies and the Winter Light Gala will launch the event January 8 at 10:00 AM in City Hall and Churchill Square. The Opening Ceremonies will preview highlights of Winter Light 2009 programming with outdoor performances, a "Blessing Fire", and a media launch with special guests, dignitaries and hot chocolate.

"I think winter has been one of Edmonton’s best kept secrets for too long," says event director Pamela Anthony. "Our goal is to showcase all the wonderful aspects of our winter city – the incredible recreation opportunities, the gorgeous river valley environment, and the culture and heritage of winter peoples."

I wanted to point out that quote, because it contains a lot of imagery that I’d love to see showcased on the website. Unfortunately, it’s not there at the moment. The first thing you see at the website is an annoying ten second flash intro. Totally useless, totally a waste of my time. Once you’re past that however, things start to improve.

The main page features a nice winter scene, with the city skyline, people participating in winter activities, and the catchphrase written in the style of northern lights – let it glow, let it glow, let it glow. The site is broken up into five main sections – Winter Light (about the festival), events, calendar, resources, and contacts.

Winter Light 2009 Website

Here are the things I really like about the site:

  • The integrated Google Map (available on event pages and the resources page) is great. Very quick way to see where everything is happening.
  • Using Google Calendar in place of yet another custom calendar was very smart. Well done. Makes it easy to add things to your own calendar too.
  • Consistent layout and colors.

And here are some things I’d like to see improved:

  • The RSS feed is currently empty. Make use of that! Better yet, add a proper blog to the site.
  • Get rid of the “people” banner that appears above the content on most pages. It’s unnecessary, and increases the amount of scrolling people have to do.
  • Integrate a photo sharing site like Flickr into the photos page. I’m not going to email you my photos (see my reasoning here)!
  • Add some actual resources. Showcase the river valley! Teach me about the culture and heritage of winter peoples! The website doesn’t contain any of that.
  • Update the site frequently during the months the festival is active. Change the main page to showcase the current and/or next event taking place.

For the techies reading this – the site was built using Joomla, and it appears to be hosted by Webcore Labs (a Calgary company!). Not sure if it was built in-house or by a design firm – anyone know?

I also wanted to mention that I love the Winter Light logo. It’s simple and attractive, and the two color schemes work well (white/light blue/blue for dark backgrounds, and light blue/blue/dark blue for white backgrounds). Making the word “winter” bold is a nice touch, and reinforces the idea that the event is all about celebrating the season most love to hate. Well done on the visual identity I say.

In case you’re wondering, I’m not critiquing the website just for the fun of it! I have two main goals with this post. First, I am hopeful that someone from the team will read my comments and consider making the suggested improvements. Second, I am looking for lessons that can be applied to the Halloween Edmonton website, as that festival would be very similar – an umbrella for existing events along with a few new ones.

So far, so good!

Edmonton’s Winter Lights Festival – Details Please!

Back in September, plans for a new winter festival called Winter Lights: A Celebration of Edmonton’s Winter Spirit were released. Almost immediately city council allocated $450,000 to the event. Today, the festival received an additional $300,000 from council:

The money comes as councillors try to make cuts to the proposed 2009 budget to avoid homeowners getting stuck with the double-digit tax increase that was originally projected in October.

Festival chairperson John Mahon said he appreciates people’s concern for how their tax dollars will be spent.

The event would run from January 8th until March 21st, right during the heart of winter. In addition to including three existing events – Ice on Whyte, the Deep Freeze on 118th Avenue, and Silver Skate in Hawrelak Park – new events such as a star-gazing party in Elk Island National Park are being planned. I like the idea, and I think it will be great for Edmonton to make that time of the year more enjoyable!

Holiday Lights at the Alberta Legislature
Photos of Light Up at The Alberta Legislature

I am concerned about the budget and timeline for the festival, however. I completely understand that arts and culture make up a relatively small amount of the city budget, and I absolutely agree that a winter festival is a great idea for a northern city like Edmonton. What I don’t get is how $750,000 is going to be spent on a festival slated to start in about a month?

Where is the website? What does the marketing look like? Is there a logo? Why are the only results in a Google Search news articles about the funding? Why isn’t the event listed in the Festival City calendar? Why don’t the existing event websites mention the new festival? And just what are these new events, anyway? A star-gazing party doesn’t sound like a very expensive production. And finally, why are they already planning for 2010? Shouldn’t we see how 2009 goes first?

According to the Edmonton Journal, more details will be released next Wednesday. I would really love for this festival to be successful, so I hope the plans don’t disappoint.

In the meantime, check out this thread at C2E for some more context and history. And some interesting ideas from Edmontonians!

UPDATE (12/12/2008): A website launched on Wednesday, December 10th: http://www.winterlight.ca – thx to Joel in the comments for letting me know.

UPDATE (1/8/2009): Here are notes, photos, and video from the opening ceremonies for Winter Light 2009!

Halloween in Edmonton: Deadmonton

I was fortunate enough to be invited to an organizational meeting tonight for a new Halloween-themed festival here in Edmonton. More than just a festival however, the three principals behind the idea (Darryl Plunkie, Derek Clayton, Christian Nelson) have a vision to establish Edmonton as the Halloween Capital of Canada. I’ll admit that I don’t feel as strongly about Halloween as many of the individuals in attendance tonight do, but I am passionate about my city and I think they’re on to something.

Like many Edmontonians, I hate the word “Deadmonton” as it is often used. It’s entirely negative and disheartening. It’s no surprise that I fell in love with Christian Nelson’s presentation back at Pecha Kucha 2, where he suggested we reclaim the word and use it for good. Tonight’s meeting grew out of Christian exploring that idea with Darryl, Derek, and others. The general idea is to create a Halloween Festival to tie together all of the various events that already take place in the city. It was suggested that the festival be a week long, until Darryl said “it should be 13 days!” He also suggested that the organizing board be called the “Council of E-ville.” The meeting was both productive and fun!

i *heart* deadmonton

The first step was for everyone to introduce themselves (we had 17 people attend). The group was quite varied, which meant we had all kinds of experience and insight available. Kenn Bur from EEDC hosted the event and kept us on track. We had Ellen Finn from the Civic Events Office at the City of Edmonton, Shirley Lowe from the Old Strathcona Business Association, and John Mahon from the Edmonton Arts Council join us and they all shared their experience on how other festivals have been started and managed. The remainder of the group was made up of individuals in the Halloween industry, and Edmontonians-at-large like me and Debra Ward.

The three principals shared their ideas, and then we went around the group for additional comments. There were lots of great ideas thrown around, and a number of interesting questions were raised. What’s clear is that there’s passion for this event. Some of the ideas I found particularly intriguing included:

  • Taste of Deadmonton
  • Miss Deadmonton
  • Worst Yard Contest
  • Horror Theme Music by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra
  • Some sort of Halloween Blood Drive

There are already many Halloween events that take place in the city of course, such as the Scarecrow Festival, Edmonton Ghost Tours, The Bear’s Halloween Howler, and many more. I think joining forces to share the marketing muscle of the Deadmonton brand is a great idea.

Some of the questions that came up included:

  • What kind of festival would it be? John Mahon said there are basically two models. The first is the Fringe/Heritage Festival model, in which the participants are mostly independent and just share the site and/or marketing of the festival. The second is the Folk Fest model, where things are much more controlled. The Halloween Festival would probably be the former.
  • Would the event need a dedicated venue?
  • Do we need a board? Where does the funding come from? Etc.

Finally, here are a couple comments I found particularly interesting:

“Edmonton has more goth stores than any other place in Canada.” – Rona Anderson

“Winnipeg can try to top The Fringe, but you can’t really top Deadmonton. It’s truly unique.” – Christian Nelson

The next step is to try to digest some of the ideas and excitement that came out tonight, and figure out a way forward. The goal for the first year is really to get the festival established, with a website and some common branding. We can then build atop that foundation.

If you have ideas or would like to get involved, please email HalloweenEdmonton@gmail.com. You can also leave a comment here if you like!

UPDATE: I should have linked to Kerry Diotte’s article on this meeting in the Edmonton Sun. Published on Tuesday, it has a bit more background information.

ETS Centennial Week: September 12-20, 2008

edmonton transit Today marks the start of Transit Centennial Week here in Edmonton, celebrating 100 years of public transit in our city. The official proclamation occurred today from 11am until noon at City Hall. All week you’ll be able to find displays, special events, free tours, and more.

The festivities get underway this evening at 7pm in Churchill Square. Local band Shout Out Out Out Out will be on hand along with The Whitsundays and the Trevor Tchir Band.

On September 14th you can see Le Fuzz, Ayla Brook, Manraygun, Ben Sures, and Robin Hunter and Six Foot Bullies, a musical event fit for the entire family. On September 19th at both 8pm and 9:30pm, Rapid Fire Theatre will be performing “Kiss My Bus”, a live play on a bus! They also performed this show earlier this summer at the Fringe festival. The big finale on September 20th will be Movies on the Square presented by ETS.

All week in Churchill Square you’ll be able to find information displays and the Big Tent right in front of City Hall which contains transit artifacts and memorabilia, film footage, and other multimedia displays.

For more information and complete event listings, including free tours and garage open houses, check out the Transit Centennial Week website.

If you’ve never been on the High Level Streetcar before, I’d definitely recommend it. There are free tours from 11am until 4pm on the 13th, 14th, and 20th. I think the D.L. MacDonald garage open house would be pretty neat too (the LRT garage…open house is noon to 4pm on the 20th).

Volunteer for one of Edmonton's great festivals

volunteer edmonton Despite another setback for our neighbors to the south this week, summer is definitely on the way and that means lots and lots of festivals here in Edmonton. With over 30 established festivals each year, it’s no surprise that we’re Canada’s Festival City. It should also be no surprise that running 30 festivals requires a lot of time and effort, largely from volunteers:

The estimated number of volunteers required by Edmonton’s festivals is about 5,000 people! Our festivals are a source of community pride and an important element in the quality of life for Edmontonians in the summer – and beyond!

To help attract new volunteers, Volunteer Edmonton is co-hosting a Festival Volunteer Fair next week:

This recruitment event will showcase multiple festivals and will provide members of the community with a “one stop festival volunteer shopping experience”.  We have confirmed that 15 diverse and exciting festivals will be on site, highlighting the volunteer opportunities they have to offer.

I think there are actually over 20 festivals now participating, including the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, A Taste of Edmonton, The Works Art & Design Festival, and the International Street Performers Festival.

The recruitment event takes place on Wednesday, May 14th from 3pm to 7pm at the TransAlta Arts Barns. Here’s a map of the location, and for more information you can call 211 or visit the Volunteer Edmonton site.

Check it out and pass it on!

Fringe 007: Ignorance, Mini Donuts, and Die-Nasty

Sharon dragged me to the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival, aka the Fringe, a few years ago, and I actually enjoyed it. I’ve since come to enjoy Edmonton’s live theatre scene, so I was definitely looking forward to this year’s festival, called “Live and Let Fringe” in honor of the year. The festival runs until August 26th.

The first show Sharon, Dickson and I went to see last night was called “The Power of Ignorance” and since Sharon took care of getting tickets and such ahead of time, I didn’t know much more about it than that. Turns out it was a one-man show, performed by British comedian Chris Gibbs, in the form of a seminar that promised to help you tap into your power of ignorance to lead a better, happier life. I really enjoyed it – it was extremely funny! I laughed pretty hard. The ending was kind of weird, but otherwise, great show. The Journal gave it 4.5 stars (out of 5) today. To that I say: well deserved.

Afterward we wandered around the grounds, taking in the sights. No trip to the Fringe is complete without mini donuts, so I got some of those and headed for the beer gardens. On the way we stopped to see Hoja, a popular Canadian a capella group. We saw them perform “YMCA” and “500 Miles”, complete with dancing and everything.

We ended the evening by going to see Die-Nasty. I have to say I didn’t enjoy it as much as their season 16 finale. For one thing, there was no Jeff Haslam. His comic timing would definitely have helped the show out. Davina Stewart was there however, and she was really funny! On the whole though, it was just average. Perhaps it was because they were making fun of the Fringe itself, and I just didn’t get all of the jokes?

I’m going to go see at least one more show, but I am not sure which one yet. Perhaps I should have a look at all of the pieces of paper we received while waiting in line. Sharon remarked that the Fringe would be a good place for entrepreneurs to learn, and I have to agree. The elevator pitches that the performers give as they work the lineups at other shows are really quite good. Entrepreneurs could definitely learn a thing or two.

Check out the official Fringe site here, and also the Edmonton Journal’s complete coverage.

Read: Fringe 007

Edmonton Festival City

Post ImageI was looking around for event listings for Edmonton recently, and yesterday I stumbled upon the Edmonton Festival City website. My first reaction was – wow, this is great! – and my second reaction was – how did I not know about this site?! From the about page:

The people of Greater Edmonton are physically connected to each other by streets, sidewalks and bridges. We are also united culturally through our sports teams, the arts, local media and — uniquely to Edmonton — by the range, depth and variety of our festival scene.

The site has photos and some general information, but the real gem is the calendar. All of Edmonton’s many festivals are listed, with dates, contact information, and brief descriptions. There are events listed right up to November 2008.

It’s a pretty good resource. They really should have a blog/RSS feed with festival-related news though, then it would be really useful.

Read: Festival City

Bright Nights 2006

Post ImageLast night I went with Sharon to check out the Bright Nights festival in Hawrelak Park. The event is always described as an “Edmonton tradition” and since I had never been before, I figured I should check it out. I came away less than impressed.

In general I’m short on patience, and it definitely wore thin waiting in the line of cars to drive through. It seemed to take much longer than it should have to get to the toll booth. So that was my first problem with event. My second problem was the advertising! Everywhere you looked – advertising. They tell you turn the radio to 98.3 so you can hear about the displays, but they lied. All you hear is advertising…”thanks to our sponsors” and crap. With all that advertising one would think they could lower the entry price, but no! Fortunately Sharon had a coupon, so it only cost us $10 as opposed to $15. That doesn’t take into account the wasted gas, however.

And finally, the displays weren’t that spectacular. Maybe I just had unrealistic expectations or something, but I didn’t ooh and ahhh at any of them. I did like the penguins on a snowmobile though, because penguins rock! Overall, I’d have to say that Candy Cane Lane has better displays!

I could think of better ways to spend $10 and over an hour of my time. I can now say I’ve been to Bright Nights, but I don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon.