Medicine Hat's events gaining in popularity
Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News
Community events in Medicine Hat have come a long way in the past three years.
As recently as 2007, downtown mainstays like the annual Chili Cook-Off were struggling to find participants. And while the city’s Spectrum celebration was still drawing strong crowds, festival chairperson Jamie McIntosh says the event was “lacking a reason to exist.”
Now, with attendance numbers climbing and ambitious new entertainment lined up for 2010, Medicine Hat’s event organizers say they’re seeing “new excitement” in the community.
Last year’s Chili Cook-Off brought approximately 10,000 people downtown to sample 85 varieties of chili and salsa.
More recently, December 2009’s Midnight Madness, saw over 250 children head to City Hall to meet Santa Claus, while downtown stores reported their best ever sales figures for the one-night event.
Part of this new momentum, McIntosh suggests, comes from Spectrum’s return to the downtown in 2008, after a number of years in Kin Coulee Park.
"When Spectrum was created, it was created as a way to help revitalize downtown,” explains McIntosh. “And we sort of lost that purpose, other than just having a festival. Moving it back downtown, it did give it... a reason to move forward."
Over 40,000 food tickets were sold over the festival weekend in 2008, and McIntosh believes 2009 would have seen even better turnouts had an unseasonable freezing
rain storm not forced the sunshine festival to cancel its Saturday and Sunday events.
With the weekend festival celebrating its 20th birthday in 2010, he says Spectrum’s planning committee is ready to pick up the momentum of 2008.
Offerings for children and teenagers will be stepped up this year, with interactive jump tents for older children, and a screening of Jurassic Park at the Monarch theatre. Continuing the dinosaur theme, organizers also plan to have staff from the Royal Tyrrell Museum lead a mock dinosaur dig in the sand lot on Second Street.
George Webb, executive director of City Centre Development Agency, which organizes many downtown events, says the sand lot will also come into play during this year’s Chili Cook-Off.
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Sand carver Peter Vogelaar will spend four days creating a sculpture in the lot, Webb says. On the day of the event, he and his team will also offer lessons on building great sandcastles.
"It's about trying new things, and things that haven't been brought to the table before," Webb says. "The same events, but with new and exciting twists, and more things to do.”
Area tourism benefitting from
'stay-cations'
Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News
Like many southeast Alberta communities, Medicine Hat is benefiting from Canada’s “stay- cation” trend, says city tourism director Dan Engle.
Engle says 2009 was “quite positive, especially given what tourism in general, provincially and nationally, experienced.”
According to Tourism Medicine Hat’s annual report, tourism was up about four per cent in the city, and Engle says some annual events and venues saw increases closer to 10 per cent.
“Anything outdoors and cultural was really popular last year,” he says, pointing to the popularity of Medicine Hat’s Drag Racing Association, Police Point Park and the Historic Clay District as examples.
Engle attributes the increase to the economic slowdown of 2008 and 2009, which saw more Canadians opt for local trips instead of international holidays. He says a majority of visitors to Medicine Hat came from Calgary and Edmonton, Saskatchewan, and communities in the surrounding area.
And Engle expects many of last year’s visitors to come back, and bring new tourists with them.
“There was a lot of very, very positive feedback for the events that were attended last year . . . I don't think that it's going to be a one-off,” he says.
NEWS FILE PHOTO EMMA BENNETT Greg and Amy Sissons, left, Mike, Tami and Karagyn Kroft and their children are only some of the hundreds of Hatters that took part in the 2009 annual downtown Chili Cook off on July 18.
Promoting the organization’s new website, TourismMedicineHat.com, which launched earlier this year will be a major focus as well, he says. In addition to information on dining, lodging and attractions in the city, the new site also includes an events calendar where local groups can provide information to city visitors.
“It’ll be the first stop for people planning on visiting the city,” Engle says.
The organization is also working with other businesses and community groups to “repackage and refocus” tourism in the city.
52238900•03/03/10
40 — REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA 2010 ■ Celebrating our Community
NEWS FILE PHOTO EMMA BENNETT Santa Claus greets children along Third Street during downtown Midnight Madness on Nov. 26, 2009.
A group of 20 industry representatives, including staff from Medalta and the Esplanade, is currently looking at ways the city’s tourism businesses can work together to promote the city in a more comprehensive way.
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