Back again for its eighth year, CentreFest 2010 is Central Alberta’s largest festival, with an estimated attendance of nearly 25,000 over a two day period. This is a great opportunity for local businesses and vendors to set up shop for the weekend, and gain exposure to the masses. CentreFest boasts a unique market style atmosphere and is a showcase of Central Alberta culture through its artisans and craftspeople.

New this year is the Interactive Artists category. Traditionally, we have relied upon an external curator to find interactive artists such as face painters, glitter tattooists, caricaturists, and the like, which resulted in few local interactive artists having a place at CentreFest. This year, with our commitment to increasing the awareness of Central Alberta culture, we have decided to search out local talent for these types of artists. This is a great opportunity for us to enhance the focus of our local culture and arts scene.

Potential vendors can find more information, and download an application from the website.

There is a May 14th deadline for all vendor submissions, and we do have limited space, so act quickly.

Spring is upon us, and some tell-tale signs are about to make their presence known in the downtown area. 

Street Cleanup
The City of Red Deer will begin street sweeping the week of March 29th. While no exact schedule has been released, Public Works states that downtown cleanup will begin the week of April 6th, weather permitting. A full schedule for city wide street cleaning will be posted on the city website once finalized.

Graffiti
With warmer weather comes an unfortunate increase in the amount of graffiti that can be found on downtown buildings. All graffiti should be removed as soon as possible. Fresh graffiti is often very easy to remove, after the graffiti has set, it is much more difficult to remove. Graffiti that is removed within 24 hours has only a 10 percent chance of returning, whearas those who remove graffiti after a two week period will almost certainly find themselves cleaning the same graffiti on a regular basis. If you see graffiti, report it to the graffiti hotline, 403.356.8908.  For more information, visit our graffiti page.

Vested Interest
The Vested Interest program of the Canadian Mental Health Association trains and employs individuals with disabilities to perform street level micro cleaning, as well as indoor micro cleaning in both residential and commercial properties in the downtown.  Vested Interest trains part-time workers who need experience and a chance to get ahead.  Vested Interest provides a pool of trained and supervised employees, as well as all necessary equipment and materials.  Services such as litter removal, snow removal and window washing are available, to book or inquire about available services, please call Tim Hafso, Vested Interest Coordinator at 403.304.7662.

The DBA is presenting luncheon workshops for small to medium sized businesses.

On April 21 is Networking From The Inside Out.  This practical session will focus on three elements of networking; participants can expect humour, energy, discussion, and opportunities to share effective practices.

The presenter Kristen Cumming is an Alberta based speaker, facilitator and trainer specializing in the impact of Canadian demography in the workplace and classroom.  Kristen uses an engaging and humourous style to articulate themes and concepts to a broad audience while offering insight on recruitment, retention and performance issues.

“The DBA has committed to finding ways to strengthen relationships amongst downtown businesses.  We encourage you to lunch and learn with your neighbours, your peers, your competition.  Kristen is fabulous, she is sure to delight and enlighten,” says Laura Turner, Executive Director of the Downtown Business Association.

The luncheon workshops will run from 11:30am to 1:30pm at the Red Deer Lodge.  Cost is $25 for BRZ ratepayers and $30 for all others.  To register, call the DBA office at 403-340-8696.
 

Downtown Red Deer will once again be taken over by Central Alberta’s largest festival on the weekend of July 31st and August 1st, 2010.  CentreFest 2009 hosted over 20,000 people and organizers anticipate this year’s CentreFest to be the best yet.

The eighth annual festival will continue to offer past favourites – Kids World, Rotary Water World, and the Street Market – as well as the variety of street performers that festival-goers have enjoyed over the past seven years.  CentreFest has featured artists and performers whose talents have included everything from acrobatics to sword-swallowing. CentreFest will again showcase the wacky, the zany, the amazing and the funny to be enjoyed by all-ages.

While organizers are mum about the details, they are planning some enhancements to the festival this year.  “CentreFest has always been about world-class street performers and we certainly wouldn’t change that aspect of the festival,” says Randy Butler, Festival Director.  “But we are hoping to have more things for festival audiences to see and do this year,” he adds.

As organizers work through the many details of presenting the two-day festival, updates will be posted on the CentreFest website - www.centrefest.ca.

.

The Downtown Business Association is pleased to announce that Randy Butler has joined the office team as the new Communications & Event Coordinator.

“We are very excited to welcome Randy to our team. He has a strong array of skills, and his experience in communication, marketing and event planning will be of great service to the Association”, says Laura Turner, Executive Director. “We hope that Randy’s experience will allow us to develop our special events, and increase our profile within the community through marketing projects and enhanced communications.”

Under agreement with CentreFest, the Downtown Business Association will provide event coordination services to the 2010 festival. Mr. Butler will act as CentreFest festival director.

Mr. Butler holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in English. He earned this degree through the University of Calgary Collaborative program at Red Deer College. Randy is a former President of the Students’ Association of Red Deer College, and a former Marketing and Communications for the Alberta Students Executive Council. Through these positions, he has developed a wide variety of skills that will be of great benefit to the Downtown Business Association. Randy has also sat on the Red Deer College alumni board, and is community focussed and driven to succeed.