Westerner Days 2019 (rdnewsNOW/Josh Hall)

By Sheldon Spackman

different scenarios at play

All options on the table in planning for Westerner Days

Mar 24, 2021 | 2:06 PM

Westerner Park officials remain cautiously optimistic about hosting central Alberta’s largest summer celebration this year.

With last year’s event cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Westerner Park CEO Mike Olesen says it’s still too early to say how this year’s fair might look.

“I think the approach and the strategy to focus on outdoor programming and work on the things that are most controllable from a distancing point of view, first, and enhancing the event as we learn more about easing restrictions, or not. That obviously starts with the midway and the food component and anything outdoors,” he explains.

From there, he says you look to expand into the entertainment realm and see if aspects such as outdoor concerts and things of that nature are allowed to take place.

‘It’s a game of balance because you don’t want to over-commit yourself and enter a bunch of risk in terms of locking in talent and making bookings and spending a bunch of capital that you really don’t have,” says Olesen. “There’s still the risk that the event could be unfortunately, cancelled. But certainly not what we’re anticipating, we’re still moving forward.”

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With the next several months still posing much uncertainty, Olesen says they are planning for various scenarios.

“You want to leave yourself as much flexibility to adapt one way or another because the one sure thing at events is it doesn’t necessarily go according to plan,” he points out. “It’s always about, how do you adjust and what are your priorities when you have to pivot? So we need to be just as ready to scale the event up, as we may need to scale it down.”

Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, said on March 2 that having large events and gatherings this summer would depend on hospitalization metrics they continue to track closely, as well other factors.

“One of the absolutely critical factors in being able to consider having larger events this summer will be the number of people who we’re able to offer a vaccine to and the number of people who accept that offer,” explained Hinshaw. “The more Albertans who are taking us up on that offer when they’re eligible, the more able we’ll be to consider moving this summer, depending on timelines and vaccine availability, into potentially allowing some festivals that we weren’t able to allow last summer.”

Olesen says Westerner Park’s approach to Westerner Days is the same for other planned events in 2021, such as CFR and Agri-Trade.

“Your challenge is timing and how you manage your ticketing timelines and people’s expectations as well,” he says.

“You’d love to come out early, but at the same time it’s probably not smart to do that until we know more. Because we want to ensure that what we’re promoting is going to be the right model for what people can expect when they do come to the arena.”

Last year’s decision to cancel Westerner Days was made in April. Olesen notes there’s currently no deadline to make a call regarding this year.

“If for whatever reason it can’t happen in our traditional timelines in July, we’ll always look at future options later in the summer, too, if that’s possible.”