Parade and festivals - how to attract more to downtown

[halifaxboyns]

I'm not sure if I should be starting a new thread for this, but what the hell. Having Stampede on here in Calgary, got me thinking about some of the joys of living in downtown Calgary.

Now don't get me wrong - we're not like Montreal or Toronto with a bustling downtown at night. In non-stampede times and outside of any festivals - downtown dies at 6pm and is dead on weekends. The only traffic is to cut through downtown - not stop in it.

But with Stampede week on; it got me thinking about what keeps me living here in downtown and what could help HRM's downtown attract more people, if more towers get built (big if there).

When I first moved to Calgary - I completely forgot about stampede. I only knew it was going on when I woke up; heard all this noise outside my balcony, got up (in my house coat) and came out to find thousands lining 6 ave SE for the parade. I ran indoors and changed quickly and invited people over. I now do an annual stampede parade viewing party; with a breakfast - my balcony spans my entire unit, so I've managed to get about 20 people on it (the record so far).

Parades and festivals help bring people to downtown and inspire them to do other things in the core..

So I wanted some people's help about parades and thoughts about things like this as something to pitch to interested councillors as HRM grows more, especially with more downtown residential development.

Now I know there is a Natal day parade, a parade for the tattoo and one for gay pride - are there any others? Perhaps a parade for the multi-cultural festival or is there already one?

I know there is a lot of festivals, the jazz fest, buskers, multicultural and even some festival style events for tattoo - but do any of these festivals, parades or events do extra things like say public breakfasts or lunches? One of the things I love for stampede week is the free breakfasts all over downtown. I don't have to worry about making anything! I can get up, go get my coffee, walk into work and then around 9 line up somewhere for a free pancake with a slice of bacon. In fact, today was the City of Calgary City Hall Cafeteria stampede breakfast - it was actually quite good. Most city departments and big corporations put on a breakfast too (I know planning had one on Monday - it was okay; although the sausages caused me some 'issues').

So if we've talked about how doing something like Calgary's Zoo lights in winter at the public gardens could attract people downtown in the winter; beyond building more condo units - how do we get them downtown in the summer?

Are there any festivals where organizations could sponsor free breakfasts (which are often cheaper than a lunch) or even an outdoor bbq?

I can think of a number of groups that could easily do it: HRM, WTCC, Scotia Bank, CIBC, TD Bank - all the banks do stuff for stampede. I don't know how expensive it would be; but you could also promote stuff going on at the stampede either by putting an entry into the parade or a booth on the grounds? Gay pride typically has a big gathering, as do the concerts - but I'm thinking more in terms of week long events that could take place during the day for office workers around the lunchhour or even during the morning (since the tourists would come for these events too). Even the Province could do something; since they had Premier Steady Eddy flipping pancakes down at one of the government buildings the other day. The Mayor, council - even the big directors of various HRM departments could be involved (in an HRM event).

Certainly something to think about - because you can build all the condos and bring people to live downtown; but activities like these truely make a downtown a great place to be.