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airdrieFEST postponed due to COVID-19

While the City of Airdrie still hopes to host airdrieFEST this year, organizers say the event will be delayed until further notice and likely won't resemble past iterations.

While the City of Airdrie still hopes to host airdrieFEST this year, organizers say the event will be delayed until further notice and likely won't resemble past iterations.

Michael Dougherty, team lead for Community Development with the City, said the 11th annual airdrieFEST will not take place this September and could be pushed back as late as December, depending on the status of COVID-19 in Alberta.

“We understand the importance of this sort of event to the community – the community building piece, the social cohesion and getting people out to experience the culture and life of Airdrie,” he said. “But we also are taking into account this very strange world we’re currently in, and wanting to be sure we’re planning this correctly in a safe way for the community.”

Created in 2009, airdrieFEST is a “celebration of all things Airdrie,” Dougherty said. The event, which serves as a birthday celebration for the city, takes place on Main Street in front of City Hall every September.

In 2019, airdrieFEST featured a street festival with more than 250 vendors and a stage boasting a full slate of live entertainment. Last year’s airdrieFEST – the 10th iteration – also included a family fun zone with a petting zoo, train rides operated by Airdrie Festival of Lights Society and wood carving and painting demonstrations by local artists.

Dougherty said airdrieFEST brings the city together, from non-profit organizations to the local business community.

“It’s the coming together of our community that makes it so great, and celebrating what Airdrie is,” he said.

The festival is also one of Airdrie’s most popular events. According to Dougherty, airdrieFEST attracted roughly 7,000 attendees in 2019, though he acknowledged the exact figure is impossible to know for sure.

He said Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) limitations on public gatherings in Stage 2 of the provincial government’s economic relaunch plan mean only 200 people can gather together outdoors at the moment.

“It is a big event, and I think that’s what one of our biggest worries about this year’s airdrieFEST was – how we turn a 7,000-person event into groups of 200 people in a fenced area,” he said. “It becomes a challenge to think through because we love that big event that airdrieFEST is.”

As per AHS’s current health and safety guidelines, Dougherty said the City could host airdrieFEST as a market or tradeshow. However, he said members of the organizing committee agreed that kind of event would not fall in line with the grandiose vision Airdronians have for what airdrieFEST has become.

Plus, he said, other markets already take place in Airdrie, such as the weekly farmers' market on Wednesdays.

The most likely option, according to Dougherty, is to delay hosting airdrieFEST until November or December so it could better align with the community’s vision for the event.

“It is weather-dependent, but there are some great examples of community events and festivals in the winter,” he said. “We are a winter city, and we know even the 2020 Alberta Winter Games had a fantastic opening event last February. We know these things can happen in the winter and be quite successful.”

Doughtery acknowledged postponing airdrieFEST would mean the 2020 version would not be a celebration of Airdrie’s 111th birthday.

“It always fit naturally well in September, and was a part of Airdrie’s birthday celebrations,” he said. “This year, unfortunately, we’ll be celebrating that at home.”

Despite the challenges, Dougherty said organizers will continue to work with community partners to evaluate different options for hosting airdrieFEST in 2020.

“We really want this event this year," he said. "We’re just not certain in the current place we’re at with our COVID response how it’s going to happen just yet." 

Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19

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