If you’ve been liking the recent warm weather, you’ll love Calgary’s next festival.
The appropriately titled festival Chinook Blast is back for its sixth year, beginning on Jan. 30. This year, the newly renovated Eau Claire Plaza will be the event’s home. From the weekends between Jan. 30 and Feb. 16, the plaza will be packed with performers, sports, art and music, headlined by events like Drag on Ice 4.
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas, who is admittedly a fan of the warmer months and calls himself a winter wimp, said the festival has something and is a place for everyone.
“This year, Chinook Blast is going to be even bigger than ever before. It showcases some of the most amazing talent local to Calgary and brings in all sorts of folks from across the world,” he said.
“It’s a good reminder that there’s so much to do here in Calgary year-round, it’s not just summer months, and for me, as somebody who doesn’t necessarily love getting outside of -20 or -30 (Celsius), it’s a good excuse to get out and see what’s going on here in Calgary. This is going to be the place to be in Calgary for two weeks, so I’m looking forward to being able to see everyone out there.”
With guidance from guest curators, Paul Magnuson, Victoria Bucholtz and Kayla Bigras, this year’s festival will blend larger-than-life light installations, a drag show on ice and electronic music showcases to artist markets and live performances, the kind of winter magic you can only find at Chinook Blast, according to a press release.
Patti Pon, chair of Chinook Blast Executive Committee and President and CEO of Calgary Arts Development, said that though there are roughly the same number of installations as previous years, rarely anything is reused.
“Because it’s accessible and it’s free, you can come down on site and really spend the whole day and take in activities that are happening in Chinatown, go for a skate in the lagoon at Princess Island, maybe take in something at the 88 brewing beer garden,” she said.
“There’s tons of complementary activity that isn’t necessarily specifically Chinook Blast, but is all taking place in that time. You can come as often as you want, and there’ll be something different for you to do. I promise.”
Art installations will be viewable anytime throughout the festival. Specific programming will be limited to the weekends.
Designed for all Calgarians, not some Calgarians, Pon said the festival will be accessible, enjoyable and safe.
Blasting energy into a dormant, cold downtown
Farkas said that Calgarians know and have been humbled by winter, but also know how to make winter ours, a big reason why winter events like Chinook Blast matter.
“This festival is not just entertainment, it’s city building. It plays a key role in Calgary’s winter strategy and our downtown strategy, because a great city doesn’t go quiet just because the temperature drops. A great city stays active, it stays welcoming, it stays vibrant, 12 months in every year,” he said.
“Winter is often when people retreat indoors. Downtown can feel quieter, and the risk is that the momentum that we gain in the summer months fades, but Chinook Blast, to our credit, does the opposite. It creates energy. It creates movement. It brings people together. It draws Calgarians and visitors back into the heart of our city during a season when it’s traditionally very hard to do.”
Farkas called Eau Claire Plaza an iconic downtown location, hopefully even more so now, post-renovation.
“Public spaces matter, but what we do in those public spaces matters even more. They’re where city life happens, where winter becomes something you don’t just get through, but something that we get to experience. It’s fitting and quite energizing to see a winter festival take root in a space that has been brought back to life in such an incredible way,” he said.
