Spectrum 2009 Cancelled
Snow, in June?
As if it was any wonder to most people, Spectrum 2009 has been officially cancelled. This morning I awoke to a delightful snowy day, well it would have been delightful if it wasn’t June and wasn’t Spectrum weekend. Although the yearly festival went ahead as scheduled on Friday night (with small attendance), it was cancelled on Saturday citing concerns for not only the weather, but for safety, as described in this Medicine Hat News article. The article also explains that it is not only cancelled, but it is really cancelled, as in, it’s not going to be re-booked or delayed because the money and planning has already been spent for this year.
It’s really a sad thing for the coordinators, the events planners, the entertainment and even the businesses; however, some shops downtown still had their pre-planned sales going on that were meant to bank off a steady stream of Spectrum go-ers. On the up side, a lot of people are happy about the move from Kin Coulee back into the downtown, hopefully it will stick for next year.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Dusty says:
It was said to be 60, 000 spent on Spectrum, I’m wondering where this money came from. Hopefully it was donations from generous companies with plenty of volunteer work …
I’ve only been to the event once, (nothing special, hence I never went again) there was mostly businesses with tables selling stuff … some ribbon thing for kids to run around and a battle of the bands type competition. It’s not like the beer is free, I can’t possibly imagine why the event would cost this much.
I also liked the idea of it being in Kin Coulee better, the natural environment seemed to make every … “fresher”. Although, I can see why it would go downtown and why people would want it to be downtown for the historical/drive business yaddah yaddah. Just things like, I would prefer to sit on the grass than on a curb?
Freak weather though, what are the odds … :O
June 8th, 2009 at 3:58 PM
Vaughn says:
There has been a lot of comments about how the “City wasted $60,000” and things like “poor planning” have also been said over on Medicine Hat News. I agree that it was money wasted, but sometimes you can’t foresee weather months in advance when everything was planned.
Dusty says:
There’s plenty of grass and parks Downtown as well.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Dusty says:
Sometimes you can’t foresee weather months, maybe they should have put in an extra thousand to arrange for relocation to the Cypress Center in case it snows in June??
The type of person I am … I’d be glad if it was indoors, guarantee no annoying wind let alone rain and snow. Not to mention I won’t have to run away from wasps handing around because of all the extra garbage created by a large mass of consumers.
Is the actual point of Spectrum to drive people to downtown? Obviously not because it has been in Kin Coulee. So maybe it’s just to be outdoors for the fun of it? At the Cypress Center there’s actually parking and they can bring in horses and stuff because they have accommodations for that in the back (people can still walk around outside) … petting zoo!! Since Echo Dale ruined some peoples summer by not putting out a petting zoo for us to go to!
I guess in my opinion, I know the Cypress Center might seem a bit “meh” for outdoor events because that’s where the fair goes every year, but that’s why it’s so perfect! It is literally made for these huge events and can accommodate tons of people!
June 10th, 2009 at 9:39 PM
Sean says:
Straight up, people like being outside more than inside, at least most people do, and since Medicine Hat is always claimed to be the sunniest city in Canada, it makes sense that people would want to plan for summer events to be outside.
Kin Coulee is nice, but pretty gross in terms of parking and traffic, and who “really” wants to walk up and down those big steps? Not most people, and most people who do reserve that once and for Canada Day.
The Fair goes to the Cypress Center probably because it has things that people like doing outside and things people like doing inside and offers a place for people to temporarily get out of the sun.