Whoop-Up Days set for September 2-5

“For the past number of years, we’ve closed Parkside Drive during Whoop-Up Days as it is, or limited traffic to one direction, so we may limit that to construction traffic. However, the hours of operation that we’re running have very little crossover with construction and the phase of construction that we’ll be in by Labour Day weekend, so we don’t anticipate any major impacts with the construction, other than the fact that we don’t have our traditional footprint that we would on the park.”

Hours of the event have been set up purposefully to avoid any conflict with the COVID-19 vaccine clinic on-site at Exhibition Park as well.

Thursday, September 2 will operate from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with the September 3 and 4 operating from 12:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. September 5 is being set aside for the start of the Fall meet at the Rocky Mountain Turf Club.

Warkentin encourages attendees to take public transit to the venue, with the new cityLINK Network, launching August 25, allowing for a stop right outside the grounds of Exhibition Park.

Those checking out Whoop-Up Days this year will be able to enjoy live music in the Heritage Hall beer gardens and the Wild Rose Shows midway. Musical entertainment will include Uncovered, Ryan Lindsay, Eric Braun Band, and Coda Blues.

In regard to the date change from mid-August to September, he explained that was made to accommodate the midway. He explained that, “we knew as we got closer to this reopening that the city wanted this level of celebration. Obviously, there’s been some successes up the road this week in Calgary [at the Stampede] and we wanted to ensure that we can have that same level of celebration in this community.”

He said the midway is a perfect way to culminate the summer in southern Alberta.

“It was an important element that we wanted to include this year. There were some challenges with the midway industry this year and so, that [the later event date] is accommodating the midway.”

Instead of having West Coast Amusements operate the midway, Wild Rose Shows Inc. will bring in the rides for attendees to Lethbridge.

Warkentin explained that West Coast Amusements is operating in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and “given the short lead time for them, and the fact that B.C. is still under a different level of restriction than Alberta, they couldn’t run their full gamut this year.”

Food trucks and the Whoop-Up marketplace will also be featured every day.

NO PARADE OR RODEO

One change of note is that the popular Whoop-Up Days parade and western events will not be featured this year due to scheduling, cost and construction challenges, but organizers plan to have those staples back for the 2022 festival.

As for the involvement of the Rocky Mountain Turf Club, the venue will kick off its Fall meet on Sunday, September 5 to round out the weekend.

Warkentin stated that, “the parade just has a ton of logistics and resources that goes into putting that on, and due to the short time constraints, we wanted to pull that back.”

“As you saw in Calgary last week, the [Stampede] parade was a very different sense of parade than it traditionally was, with no public and just around the grounds, and we really want that parade. The parade is one of the truly unique gathering times when this community comes together in droves and we wanted to make sure that the parade could be that same experience for the people of Lethbridge that it would normally be.”

For the rodeo, the Lethbridge & District CEO said with that industry having to shift their season later due to COVID-19 restrictions, “the Labour Day weekend actually got very full with other rodeos around the country.”

“The horses are running again [at Rocky Mountain Turf Club] and we didn’t want to interrupt that operation, so we will look to bring the western event portfolio back in 2022.”

Warkentin said although Whoop-Up Days may not look the same as years past, organizers are very excited to welcome residents and guests in Lethbridge to the festival.

COVID-19 PROTOCOLS

The Calgary Stampede required proof of vaccination against COVID-19, or had attendees take a rapid COVID test to enter the indoor Nashville North venue, but Warkentin said at this time, that’s not the plan for Whoop-Up Days.

However, there will be COVID protocols in place.

Warkentin said that, “we do anticipate that the midway will be further spaced out. We are going to understand what our occupancy is, we’re still trying to figure out what that will look like, so we’ll have more details on what the free admission looks like. We will likely be tracking the number of people on the grounds.”

He noted that Lethbridge & District Exhibition will work with local health authorities to adapt to any restriction changes that may come into effect this summer.

More on Whoop-Up Days 2021 is available here.

by Justin Goulet

Whoop-Up Days set for September 2-5

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