With a full house in mind, Edmonton is playing its festival card.

The city is home to more than 35 annual festivals, including flagship events such as the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival – North America’s largest theatre event – and the country’s biggest cross-country ski festival, the Birkebeiner.

Now, a newly launched partnership is set to tap the tourism potential of the city’s active festival scene.

The Edmonton Festival City Partnership marketing initiative, called Edmonton Festival City, Live All Year, is a collaboration between the city’s cultural and tourism industries.

It’s a direct result of the Greater Edmonton Competitive Strategy, which in 2001 identified the need to promote Edmonton’s festivals and cultural events in order to enhance their tourism value.

Edmonton Tourism photo
You never know what’s in store at Edmonton’s wacky street festivals – including unique cucumber-chopping services.

Bolstered by a grant from the Edmonton Arts Council and $70,000 from Edmonton city hall, the new marketing initiative brings together the Edmonton Arts Council, the Edmonton Festivals Consortium, the Edmonton Capital Region Tourism Partnership and Edmonton Tourism.

“Edmonton’s festivals present internationally recognized cultural events all year round,” said Ken Fiske, Economic Development Edmonton’s vice- president for tourism, events and motion pictures.

“This campaign, which focuses on the excitement and energy of the festivals, will demonstrate another reason why Greater Edmonton is a great region to visit, work and play.”

The purpose of the initiative, added Fiske, is to help showcase the arts and culture of the Edmonton region nationally and internationally.

“We’ve been doing that, but not under an over-arching umbrella. This gives us a real opportunity, as tourism, festival and cultural groups have all come together to create a marketing program that we believe will work for all of us.”

The marketing push, which is just kicking into gear, includes the launch of the festivalcity.ca website and the distribution of Festival City ambassador kits – containing a brochure, luggage tags and a CD-ROM – to industry, travel, media and festival organizations.

In the next few weeks, it will be followed with hotel packages featuring various Edmonton festivals. In the fall, the thrust will be focused on a business travel promotion in Eastern Canada targeting Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa.

A successful campaign will mean Edmonton can expect to see its economic impact figures for the arts and culture sector to rise from $82.5 million in 1999, said John Mahon, executive director of the Edmonton Arts Council.

The 1999 numbers, the most recent available, include Edmonton’s entire arts sector, but Mahon stressed that the festivals accounted for a large portion of those dollars.

Meanwhile, early results are promising. “We launched this (Edmonton Festival City) in May in New York at Canada Media Marketplace and reaction was very positive, including the desire to come and see the festivals,” said Fiske.

“The festivals of Edmonton are hot attractions,” agreed Pamela Anthony, chair of the Edmonton Festivals Consortium and producer of the city’s Comedy Arts Festival.

“People want an exciting experience of life when they travel. Edmonton is a place for cultural adventure, and there’s an authentic spirit of celebration that comes alive at the festivals.”

But interestingly enough, it will be the tourism sector and not necessarily the festivals that will benefit from the initiative, said Anthony.

“I think the major benefit of promoting the festivals is for our tourism industry,” she said. “The main focus from the industry point of view is that the festivals are economic drivers.”

“For the individual festivals, it really depends on what kind of impact it may have. For someone who has a ticketed series, they may see some benefit, but for open-site (free) shows, they may not benefit as much. But it will (reinforce) the notion of Edmonton as a cultural capital.”

“I think the festivals are looking at this for the long term and for the future of the city,” added Mahon.

Strengthening Edmonton’s position as Canada’s festival city will also help the festivals to attract performers, said Anthony.

Right now, she added, Edmonton’s only competition for the “festival city” title comes not from Calgary with its International Children’s Festival, folk music scene, jazz, bluegrass and comedy festivals, but Quebec, home to Montreal’s World Film Festival, Inter- national Jazz Festival and the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival.

“I love Calgary,” said Anthony, “and they have some great events. But Calgary is more focused on the rodeo as part of their culture – they’re overshadowed by the Stampede.”

That comment is echoed by Les Siemieniuk, general manager of the Calgary Folk Music Festival.

“In Calgary, the Stampede really is the granddaddy and really does overshadow other events,” he said.

“There is a black hole of media coverage, and everything is really focused on the Stampede – because it is a citywide event, it happens everywhere. Everybody else lives in the shadow of this elephant. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good elephant, but the reality is Edmonton has nothing like the Stampede.”

Stampede aside, Calgary’s festivals also have a number of other factors to contend with, said Siemieniuk.

The city’s close proximity to the mountains means people leave town for weekend getaways, something Edmonton doesn’t deal with on the same scale, he said.

“People tend to make their own fun more when they don’t have these other distractions.”

More importantly, said Siemieniuk, is that the city of Edmonton has invested a lot more seed money into their festivals.

“They were a lot more supportive, whereas in Calgary you were on your own.”