Following a recent visit to the Calgary Stampede — my first in several years — I came away tempted to write a column about how much it sucked.
The claustrophobia-inducing crowds. The noise. The drunks. The outrageous prices for everything. The tiresome, taxpayer-funded political glad-handing. The ubiquitous cowboy cosplay from urban elites who couldn’t tell you the difference between a stallion and a gelding.
Ugh.
In the end, I thought better of it, not only because such a column would make me sound old, or that it would unnecessarily tick off all of southern Alberta, but mostly because I realized a lot of what I was feeling was jealousy — especially after a subsequent visit to Edmonton’s KDays.
The truth is, it is amazing that Calgary has such a spectacle embraced by the whole city, in which nearly 1.5 million annual visitors are willing to put up with all those annoyances — $15 for a hot dog without sufficient elbow room to eat it, for example — and come back for more.
The Stampede is feat of audacity. It is a must to see, and a place to be seen, to the point that that almost every political leader in the country feels compelled to show up in a cowboy hat.
And if that isn’t envy-inducing enough for Edmontonians, I shudder to mention the major redevelopment plans Calgary has on the table, including a proper concert venue and new agriculture building, not to mention the already half-completed arena project to which Danielle Smith’s government contributed $330 million of our taxpayer dollars.
As for our counterpart in the capital, KDays is still a good time for what it is — at least when it isn’t battered by vicious thunderstorms — but Edmonton’s summer exhibition is an increasingly hard comparison with the Stampede.
The fair has no particular theme anymore and no longer has much presence outside of the fairgrounds, especially since the demise of the parade in 2020. Everything is on a smaller scale, from the midway to the exhibitions to the crowds, which are a little over half of what the Stampede gets. While KDays’s economic impact is pegged at $25 million — nothing to sneeze at — the output from Calgary’s party is measured at $389 million.
Those numbers kind of put the disparity in perspective, right?
Moreover, while the Stampede has a 20-year vision to get bigger and better, the next two decades for KDays looks to be a much more uncertain road stemming from the city’s plans to overhaul the former Northlands area into a major new residential community.
The summer exhibition has called that site home for more than a century, which is partly why an effort is afoot to try to keep it there in perpetuity amid the changes, not to mention the fact that there is really nowhere else for it to go.
At the same time, valid concerns exist about whether community and carnival can truly co-exist when it comes to questions of noise, traffic, parking, and how KDays may cope surrounded by 20 to 30 years of construction. Ultimately, it is fair to wonder if the city can carve out enough space and flexibility to not just ensure KDays’s survival, but allow it to thrive beyond its current limitations.
The plan
Anyone who has passed by the exhibition lands lately will have likely noticed some early-stage construction for the project is already underway near 79 Street and 113 Avenue. Most of the work so far has been on sewer and stormwater infrastructure along with roads and sidewalks that will eventually serve the southwest corner of the development.
Later this year, the nearby Spectrum building at the former racetrack is set to be demolished, followed by the old Coliseum not long after.
All told, the redevelopment area encompasses a large swath of territory that roughly resembles a jagged pizza slice, with the wide end running along the edge of Borden Park and the tip of the triangle culminating 10 blocks north near Yellowhead Trail.
New housing is the major goal, anchored by two higher-density “transit villages” — first a southern hub to be built beside a new Capital Line LRT station near 115 Avenue, and later a northern counterpart around a redeveloped Coliseum station above 118 Avenue.
Retail and commercial spaces are also part of the design, along with an expansion of Borden Park, additional green sites and pathways connecting it all. Construction is expected to generally progress from south to north over the years.
In the city’s words, the project represents a “dramatic shift from large land areas that are seldom used into a sustainable, transit-oriented community that will be home to over 6,500 residents.”
(Artists’ renderings posted on the city’s website are rather pretty, for what it’s worth.)
But as to how KDays might fit into all of this, that’s as tricky as a game of ring toss.
The Edmonton Expo Centre, which hosts the indoor portion of KDays, along with all sorts of other activities throughout the year like Farmfair International, is not going anywhere. It will remain a fixture at the centre of the area.
The outdoor space required for the fair is the conundrum, along with parking.
City managers say they are working with KDays to have the event at least continue throughout the development period, shifting its footprint as needed in accordance with construction. For example, once new housing starts to encroach on the land now used for the midway, KDays could potentially move its rides, games and concerts north of 118 Avenue to the former Coliseum area.
That could keep it going in one form or another well into the 2040s, by which time another long-term hosting option may have presented itself, the city says.
Explore Edmonton, the city-funded agency that took over operation of KDays in 2022 from Northlands, doesn’t seem as keen on that idea.
There also appears to be a bit of a disagreement, or at least some uncertainty, around space requirements.
The city, relying on a land needs assessment it commissioned, says KDays requires a minimum of 21 hectares to run, including the 15.7 hectares currently allocated to the Expo Centre. Explore Edmonton’s minimum figure is 33 hectares, including the Expo Centre and parking.
But either way, whether it’s 21 or 33 or something else, the current development blueprint for the exhibition lands does not envision enough room to accommodate KDays once full buildout is achieved.
This is an existential problem, because there is really nowhere else in the city that comes to mind as a plausible alternative site.
The new Downtown event park being built by the Oilers isn’t big enough. Hawrelak Park is too grassy/muddy to withstand 750,000 annual visitors, and isn’t well served by transit. The raceway in Leduc County is too far away.
So unless the city dramatically changes course on how to develop Blatchford, or the University of Alberta decides to give up on its experimental farm, there just aren’t any good options.
Essentially, it’s the exhibition lands or bust.
“Other cities are investing in their festival and event infrastructure, so I think it’s important Edmonton does the same,” Explore Edmonton vice-president of business development Arlindo Gomes told a council committee in April.
“Our exhibition lands is one of one in the city — there is no other site like it. An asset like that, once it’s gone, cannot really be put back together. Over time a lot of investment has gone into the underground infrastructure — drainage connections, electricity, water access. All those things help support events on the site.”
The compromise?
The area’s local representative, Coun. Ashley Salvador, has been grappling with these competing pressures for years. She notes that the lands in question have had a long history of mixed uses over the decades, including residential, and feels there is a way to make it work in a modern context.
For that spring council committee meeting, she crafted a motion that might be characterized as a compromise of sorts, asking city planners to explore changes to the plan that would carve out more space for KDays with a minimum of sacrifice to housing.
The motion has a number of pieces, but the key ideas are as follows:
• Allocate seven additional hectares of space south of the Expo Centre for outdoor events and storage;
• For the expansion of Borden Park — approximately 5.3 hectares — consider using a hard surface rather than grass to accommodate a variety of programming, potentially including KDays;
• Add more housing to the east part of the development area, along Wayne Gretzky Drive;
• Explore the potential for above ground or underground parkades on the east side of the exhibition lands to serve Explore Edmonton’s events; and
• Look at accelerating the construction of the transit villages.
Salvador’s motion was passed unanimously by the committee. City planners are expected to report back to council later this year or early next year on feasibility, costs, timelines, and how the proposed changes might impact the overall development.
To be clear, such proposals do not yet represent the official position of the city, but they are an indication of the direction much of council would like to go.
Compatibility questions
That said, even if the ideas in Salvador’s motion move from proposal to policy at some point, there are still questions about how well it’s all going to work.
For one thing, outdoor exhibitions that are long, loud and late tend not to mix well with residential communities. One has to assume this is part of the reason why the city did not envision KDays staying long term in an area where they plan to house 6,500 new residents.
It’s worth noting that similar tensions boiled over in Calgary this year in relation to Stampede week music tents, after increasing complaints from nearby residents that they were fed up with excessive late-night noise and other disruptions.
When the city reacted with tougher rules on the venues — essentially, keep it down after midnight, especially on weeknights — the move provoked a dust-up of sorts between Mayor Jeromy Farkas and a handful of conservative politicians. Premier Danielle Smith even weighed in, posting a comment that the “fun police have struck again in Calgary.”
In Edmonton, KDays has saved itself considerable controversy by agreeing to close down concerts by 10:30 p.m. and the fireworks a little after 11 p.m.
Nonetheless, there are still complaints from nearby neighbourhoods such as Bellevue, Virginia Park and Highlands. And indeed, while spending time at a Highlands home last week that was about two kilometres from the main concert venue, the music was still quite audible over that distance.
As such, imagine the experience for someone in their new exhibition lands condo or apartment unit that’s just 400 metres away from the stage.
Moreover, what happens if Explore Edmonton eventually wants to expand K-Days’ offerings and hours, or install a new concert venue, or hold more outdoor events at the site during other times of the year?
That prospect may attract some residents who like to live close to the action. For others, it’s a tougher sell, including the developers who want to unload properties they’ve just built.
It’s one thing for people to accept disruption outside their door 10 days a year for the city’s greater good, and quite another to put up with it more frequently. And offering free earplugs to such residents probably isn’t going to cut it.
Gomes, from Explore Edmonton, says the agency works with sound companies to keep up with new technologies and techniques that help to contain noise or at least direct it away from communities. He says any future delivery of KDays and other on-site events will have to make noise mitigation a major priority, though he admits there’s only so much that can be done.
Space to survive, room to grow
Of course, such questions on sound dynamics seem a bit premature in relation to the concerns around KDays’ space needs. Salvador’s motion, if implemented, would create some extra room but it’s not entirely clear whether that even meets the event’s basic requirements.
For Explore Edmonton, a key factor is the parking question.
Because as much as the city would prefer everyone to take transit to KDays, some visitors are always going to prefer to drive. If they don’t have anywhere to park, they will either just not attend, or will look to leave their car in surrounding neighbourhoods, which will create further conflict.
Explore Edmonton also relies on parking revenue to sustain its delicate balance sheet, not just during KDays but for all its events at the Expo Centre.
Under the current blueprint, housing development is set to swallow up much of the surface stalls on the grounds, which means the construction of parkades is likely essential. If that happens, it will go a long way to ensuring KDays has enough space to continue operating.
Still, what we’re ultimately talking about in that scenario is a festival operating at the bare minimum, or something close to it, with limited opportunities for growth and experimentation. And frankly, at a time of high competition for entertainment and tourist dollars, KDays and the city should be thinking about those prospects, just like the Stampede is.
As the expression goes, when you stop growing, you are shrinking. If you are not at the table, you’re on the menu.
For awhile now, I’ve heard complaints from the fair’s prime clientele — teens and young adults — that there simply isn’t enough quantity and variety of rides on the midway. Others have suggested that the indoor exhibition halls seem a bit sparse.
Even though it might conflict with the Oilers’ new event park, it would be nice at some point for KDays to have a more sophisticated outdoor performing arts facility that could attract bigger and better acts, and to have more outdoor events in general.
Would the Edmonton Heritage Festival ever think about coming back to the exhibition grounds, which does offer some transportation and logistical advantages over Hawrelak Park?
What about an Oktoberfest event? Or a beach volleyball tournament?
Has anyone thought of possibly building a hotel or two in the area?
Or are all of these thoughts largely pointless because there simply won’t be enough event space at the site, or because such activity is ultimately incompatible with a new residential community?
When you shift from a housing development plan that doesn’t include KDays to one that does, it has profound implications for both. And at the end of the day, both need stability and certainty about their future.
Maybe it means that Edmonton needs to accept that KDays will never again be the city’s pre-eminent summer event like it was in the past, or that it will never get close to the heights of the Stampede.
Maybe we have to be OK with it staying more or less what it has become. Maybe everyone finds a way to get along under those parameters, or maybe the city needs to start thinking about a new permanent home for the exhibition, wherever that might be.
My fear, however, is that we may now be heading down a path that results in the worst of both worlds — a forced marriage in which the city is setting itself up for considerable conflict, while at the same time locking its summer fair into long-term mediocrity.
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