Edmonton Heritage Festival, Big Valley Jamboree cancelled after thunderstorm
Heavy rain damaged Heritage Festival infrastructure, organizers say
The Edmonton Heritage Festival was forced to cancel its busiest day after heavy rain damaged pavilion tents over the long weekend.
Organizers announced the closure Monday morning, saying damage to electrical, propane and water infrastructure means it isn't safe for attendees.
A thunderstorm dumped rain across Edmonton for about six hours late Sunday and early Monday, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. In total, the city saw up to 28 millimetres of rain — and after a hot, dry July, that much precipitation can potentially cause localized flooding.
Edmonton Heritage Festival Association president Bruce Hogle said crews were working at Borden Park well into the early hours of Monday, trying to deal with the storm. But when tents started collapsing under the weight of the water, it wasn't safe to stay.
In the end, Hogle said there was structural damage to too many tents, making it unsafe to open.
He was emotional as he addressed the situation, flanked by municipal and provincial politicians, on Monday afternoon.
Hogle said the tent collapse last week that left one person dead and dozens injured at a Buddhist retreat in Westlock, Alta., is also on organizers' minds.
"We want to make sure that this is not the case here. Safety is always our number one priority for every single person within the festival."
Hundreds of thousands of people attend the Edmonton Heritage Festival each year over the August long weekend, and Hogle said the holiday Monday usually draws the biggest crowds. Organizers are calling for donations to make up this year's losses, and support dozens of non-profit cultural and community groups who rely on the festival as their biggest annual fundraiser, who now can't recoup their expenses on what they expected to be a three-day event.
Fatima Mammadova was running the Azerbaijan pavilion over the weekend, but the group's tent was visibly damaged on Monday.
"It's a huge impact, because we saw a little bit of slow day on the first day. This is supposed to be the best day," she said.
"This supports a lot of our programs throughout the year that we offer free of charge to general public, so seeing that damage is a very disheartening."
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi deemed it the most difficult time the festival has faced in its history.
"This is a big hit for the festival from a financial point of view, as well as a morale point of view," he said.
Big Valley ends early
Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose, Alta., was called off on Sunday night as a thunderstorm approached the country music festival grounds. Attendees had to leave before headliner Keith Urban took to the stage.
In a series of social media posts Sunday, festival organizers first said they were monitoring a severe thunderstorm watch, then announced that the event was postponed.
In a final notice Sunday night, the rest of the event was cancelled "due to severe weather conditions," with attendees instructed to go back to their campsites or vehicles and leave.
Urban also took to social media, posting a video of him and his band members playing music on a bus backstage after their set was cancelled.
One night of Big Valley Jamboree was similarly cancelled early due to severe weather in 2022.
And in 2009, the festival stage collapsed during a severe wind storm, killing a 35-year-old woman and injuring several other people.
Long weekend storms
Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Eric Van Lochem said thunderstorms started developing over the foothills in southwest Alberta, as well as around Hinton, Alta., on Sunday afternoon.
As the systems moved east, they generated severe weather in some areas, with toonie-sized hail reported near Banff National Park. In Edson, Alta., 40 millimetres of rain fell in just one hour, with wind gusting to more than 100 kilometres per hour.
"There was more of that kind of localized flooding. There were trees coming down on vehicles and reports of downed power lines, things like that," Van Lochem said.
By the time the thunderstorm arrived in Edmonton late Sunday, Van Lochem said it was losing steam.
"As the sun set, this kind of area of thunderstorms sort of started to weaken and it basically just filled into one big area of rain, which then tracked over the city of Edmonton overnight."
July 2024 was Edmonton's hottest on record, with only about 10 millimetres of rain for the whole month.
"Certainly when it's been dry like this, then you get a lot of rain in a relatively short period, the ground has a limited capacity to absorb all of that rain at once," Van Lochem said.
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With files from Craig Ryan