Almost three years since their last event, the Airdrie Children’s Festival has announced the return of the two-day, youth-focused celebration in 2022.
A press release from the festival organizers on Feb. 7 indicates the event will once again be held at Nose Creek Regional Park on May 28 and 29, with the goal of bringing joy to inquiring young minds once again.
“We were pretty devastated the last two years with COVID, that we couldn’t bring this festival to Airdrie,” said Airdrie Children’s Festival board member Tara Levick.
“Our mission is to enrich the lives of Airdrie and surrounding area children – anything we can do to bring that back. We want to celebrate cultural differences, inspire creativity, create curiosity, and remove fear – anything to get kids thinking differently while still having fun. We feel after COVID, that’s needed more than ever.”
The Airdrie Children’s Festival was first held in 2018 to enrich the lives of children and celebrate cultural differences. This year will mark the third Airdrie Children’s Festival, as the public gathering was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-related public health restrictions.
Some notable attractions that have become staples of the annual festival are the Children’s Village, the Inspiration Station and live performances on the Nose Creek Park amphitheatre, all of which are meant to be fun and include educational elements.
“We’ll have the same components that we had in previous years, so the Inspiration Stations where kids can come and learn a new skill and get an exciting fun learning component,” Levick said. “We’re going to have the Children’s Village, which is the fun area where there are some mini games and all of that.”
Levick added the ever-popular headlining act Smilin’ Rylan is also slated to return to the Nose Creek Park this year to entertain audiences with his guitar. Other performers will include magician/juggler James Jordan, and circus artist Kate Ryan, who will wow the crowd with her hula-hoop performance skills.
“We’ll also have city-wide workshops, whether it’s going to learn how to tune up a car at an auto shop or a coding workshop on how to code a website,” Levick said.
While most components of the festival will be familiar to Airdrie families, this year will see a new sponsor of the event – Quest Braces.
“Dr. Mo [Korayem] and his team have been supporters of the festival in the past, and it was just a really easy transition to him being our presenting sponsor,” Levick said. “They’re supportive of Airdrie in a lot of ways and this is another way for them to support our community.”
Even though the festival is still over three months away, Levick said she encourages Airdrie families to get involved this year.
“We’re just ramping up marketing, so haven’t really heard from past participants, but we’re excited to get people amped up and ready to go in May,” she said.
“We’re always looking for volunteers and for people to help us spread the word and help us out in any way.”
Once the festival is taking place, Levick said she warns parents to be prepared to “spend all day” at Nose Creek Park, given the plethora of activities that will be available.
“There is going to be so much for kids to do, and there’s also going to be stuff for parents to do,” she said.
For more information, visit airdriechildrensfest.com
