(File photo/battlefordsNOW staff)

By Angela Brown

Community Support

NB International Street Performers Festival enjoyed strong success during six-year run

Jun 18, 2020 | 3:08 PM

The North Battleford International Street Performers Festival organizers have concluded their work after providing six years of shows to the community.

Kali Weber and Alexis Christensen were the two founding members of the project that ran from 2014 to 2019, and were involved with the festival since its inception.

The current board disbanded earlier in the year, and had not planned to hold a festival in 2020. Christensen noted wrapping up the project is not related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the team came to the decision back in January.

“We had a great run; we had six successful years,” Christensen said. “We just decided we were ready to move on to other things.”

Christensen co-chaired the festival during the past two years, while Weber chaired the event for the last three years.

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Christensen said volunteering on the festival in North Battleford has been an opportunity to build strong partnerships in the community, she has appreciated.

There have been plenty of challenges over the years putting on the festival. The team had to move the location one year due to a building fire, while another year a wind storm almost disrupted the festival start, but the team pulled through to make the show go on.

“It was year-round planning, and we forged ahead regardless of the many obstacles we faced,” Christensen said.

Christensen said Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC) Community Development Corporation (CDC) was the major sponsor each year. The event also received support from several other businesses as well as from grants.

The aim of the festival, also garnered the 2015 Saskatchewan Tourism Award of Excellence, has always been to provide free family entertainment, and bring the arts and culture to the Battlefords.

Christensen credited Weber’s expertise in overseeing the project’s artistic development since the festival started to make it such a success. A board of about five or six people each year volunteered on the project.

“We especially want to thank our entire business community, our local community and the thousands of people who travelled to take part over the years,” Christensen said.

She also thanked the many community volunteers who helped each year.

Christensen said she hopes the festival helped spur other new community projects in the Battlefords.

North Battleford Mayor Ryan Bater said the festival has been a boost to the area since it has been running each year. He is sad to see it end.

“It was a great event in our communities, especially in our downtown,” he said. “I suppose the first thing that comes to mind is gratitude. I want to thank all of the volunteers who gave their time to bring that event into our community, all of the vendors who supported it, and of course all the people who attended it.”

The mayor said he always found the festival to be well attended.

“[It] brought many people together, especially young people who got to see some entertainment on the streets of their city that they really wouldn’t be able to see anywhere else,” Bater said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow