Anticipation is mounting as the City of Airdrie prepares for airdrieFEST 2018. The annual street festival will descend on Airdrie’s downtown for two days Sept. 7 and 8. According to Kim Harris, community developer with the City of Airdrie, this year’s festival is set to be the largest so far, with an exciting event added on Friday evening – dubbed Music on Main. “We’re hoping that this new event is a catalyst for more good things to come for Airdrie’s downtown,” she said. Country musician Aaron Pritchett will headline the Friday night concert (see story here), which will begin with opening acts at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The free event will also feature an on-site beer garden – open at 5 p.m. – with complimentary airdrieFEST beer steins for the first 150 people that arrive. Harris said the City expects approximately 2,000 attendees at the concert. Saturday’s free street festival will take place on Main Street and the parking lots at City Hall, running from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Harris said the event will feature entertainment for all ages, ranging from face painting, bouncy castles and a petting zoo for kids to live music and ax throwing for adults. The event will also include vendors and food trucks exhibiting everything Airdrie has to offer, allowing businesses, non-profits and community groups an opportunity to connect with the community. According to Harris, vendor registration for the festival’s 189 booth spots maxed out by Aug 1. “That’s around 40 booths more than what we had in 2017,” she said. Harris said the City hopes this year’s event will be the best in airdrieFEST history. Last year’s festival saw around 5,000 attendees, and Harris said the City hopes that number will be dwarfed by this year’s attendance. Organizers have gone to great length to incorporate feedback from residents into the planning, she added. “We listened to what people had to say – not only vendors, but spectators – on a survey, and those are the things we tried to add and do better at,” Harris said. “I think, this year, people are going to be encouraged to come down and see all the exciting stuff that we have to offer.” The festival may cause some inconvenience to Airdrie motorists, however. “It is a full road closure, with access to urgent care,” Harris said. “We encourage people to park in some our other additional sites, like the Plainsmen Arena, and walk down, or they can go behind Safeway or to the south of Safeway.” With the event looming, volunteers are still needed to make airdrieFEST a success. Dave Maffitt, chair of Volunteer Airdrie’s board of directors, said more than 40 of 60 total volunteers shifts for both days of airdrieFEST were still vacant as of Aug. 27. “We couldn’t do it without volunteers helping co-ordinate traffic in and out of that area, especially during set up and at the end of the day when people are leaving and wanting some assistance, and then cleaning up after the event,” Maffitt said. “There’s just absolutely no way this event would happen without volunteers.” Volunteers will help with setup, cleanup, bussing tables and waste collection – all easy tasks, according to Maffitt. He added the goal is to have all the volunteer shifts filled prior to Sept. 6, so every volunteer can attend an hour-long safety orientation at 6 p.m. at City Hall that night. Volunteers can register to help with the event by emailing [email protected] or calling Maffitt at 403-993-5034. Ultimately, Harris said airdrieFEST is an important annual event for the community because it gives residents an opportunity to connect with local businesses and organizations. “A lot of these businesses and not-for-profits that come [to the festival] don’t have that storefront or opportunity to be face-to-face with everyone,” she said. “I think people still strive [for] and thrive on those opportunities to talk to each other, instead of doing over phone or by email. I think that social connection is the key point in connecting the community with everything Airdrie has to offer.”
