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By Justine Kelsie

Street Performers Festival organizers make best of soggy weekend

Jul 24, 2018 | 5:30 AM

Even with a move indoors, the rain didn’t wash away the enthusiasm of the organizers for a long-standing event.

The Grande Prairie International Street Performers Festival had to be moved indoors over the weekend due to rain that was set to hit the region. Co-chair of the organizing committee Clyde Blackburn says they looked at the forecast and realized that they were going to need to move the party indoors. After talking with the City of Grande Prairie, the Dave Barr Community Centre opened their doors for the event.

For the last 17-years, the rain has never been an issue for the downtown event.

“It has a high ceiling. It wasn’t a problem for any of the performers to do what they usually do. Due to the acoustics, we could only have one show at a time. On the street, we usually have two or three and sometimes four going at the same time,” said Blackburn.

He says despite the rain and venue change, there was a good turnout for the three-day event.

“All things considered, it was a big success for us. All the performers got to do their thing. We had the right number of volunteers, including for setting up and take down. We also had tremendous cooperation from the people who run the Dave Barr Community Centre as well,” he said.

Blackburn is hoping this is a one-off and they won’t have to plan to take cover in future years, but they will be looking at back-up indoor venues in advance. The success of the change this year is credited to the community rallying around the event.

“(The performers) all left town with big smiles on their faces. I think they were really happy too.” 

by Justine Kelsie