Brutal weather playing mean tricks on Edmonton's winter festivals

Edmontonians are giving this year's Silver Skate Festival the cold shoulder but it's hard to blame them given the weather.

The city has been under an extreme cold warning with temperatures below 20 Csince before the 10-day festival got underway Feb. 8 in Hawrelak Park.

The weather hashad a big impact on attendance, executive director Erin DiLoreto told CBC News on Tuesday.

Attendance sliding at Silver Skate Festival

6 years ago

Duration 1:21

Organizers of the Silver Skate Festival worry about attendance after a slow start to the 2019 version.

"It's light," Di Loreto said."It's not as as robust as it's been in previous years."

Di Loretosaid she was expecting about 120,000 people to take in thefestival, but attendance is well under 10,000 at the halfway point. The event's final day is Family Day, Feb. 18.

"We've lost revenue from cancelling our races," she said. "We've lost revenue from cancelling three days of school programs. It's the nature of the beast but we're a not-for-profit and it's just, it's going to be tough."

A fundraiser scheduled for Tuesday evening was cancelled due to the weather. It had been expected to bring in $10,000 to $15,000.

"It's been a whole year planning for 10 days and Mother Nature starts throwing horrific temperatures at you," Di Loretosaid.

She's hopeful the slightly warmer temperatures forecast for this weekend will result in a bump in attendance for the final days of the festival.

Other festivals and outdoor events in Edmonton and the area have also been battered by this winter's weather.

• Edmonton, much of Alberta start the week in grips of deep freeze
• 'Glimmer of hope': Extreme cold gripping Edmonton may soon come to an end

The folks at Elk Island Park aren't as optimistic about Saturday's sold-out Snowshoe and Stargaze event.It has been rescheduled until March 8, although refunds are available for those who have purchased tickets.

"We've done some research on what's appropriate for coldness and and what's even enjoyable as well," said interpretation coordinator Leanne Tremblay. "If it reaches25 C with or without wind chill, we'll postpone the program."

In an interview on Wednesday, Tremblay told CBC News that fewer people have been visiting Elk Island National Park during the cold spell but there are still some diehards.

"Minus 39 degrees I think it was Sunday morning, and there is still someone at our door at 10 a.m. when they opened to rent snowshoes," Tremblay said. "If they're really gung-ho about the winter activities and are dressed properly, they're still out and about doing their thing."

This will be the third weekend in a row that park officials have postponed the Snowshoe and Stargaze event.

The Canadian Birkebeiner Ski Festival, at the Cooking Lake-Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area near Elk Island, was cancelled earlier this month due to the extreme cold.

There are no plans to reschedule the Birkie but the kids' race is still expected to take place on Sunday if it isn't colder than forecast. Environment Canada is calling for it to be 16 C on Saturday and again on Sunday.

Weather also played havoc with this year's Ice on Whyte festival, renowned for its ice-carving competition.

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The weather was perfect when it opened on Jan. 24 but then spiked to a balmy 8 C, Wanda Bornn, festival producer, told CBC News.

"We had lots of visitors though on those days, which was wonderful the place was packed," said Bornn. "The following weekend things dropped down, like seriously dropped down, and we actually closed for our final Sunday."

Festival officials determined the cold posed too much risk.

"Just for the safety of our patrons and our staff and volunteers, it just wasn't safe for people to be outside for those long periods of time," said Bornn who added that it did have an economic impact.

"From what it looks like now we will be OK," she said. "It would have been nice to have the 5 Cideal average temperature every single day, which then of course would have left us with some seed money for next year's festival.

"But it just means we've got to buckle down and start our fundraising."