Despite the wet and windy weather, the organizers say the Edmonton Heritage Festival was a success with an estimated 100,000 visitors on Monday alone. “We’re certainly overwhelmed – beyond happy,” said organizer Rob Rohatyn. But the three-day festival didn’t come without its challenges, including rain and high winds that forced pavilions to shut down early on Saturday evening and again on Sunday afternoon. “We just felt that it was safe to shut down,” said Rohatyn. “We were concerned of the possible risks of damage or injury, and it was just a prudent thing to do to ensure the safety of our attendees, our pavilions, our volunteers and staff.” In an effort to recoup losses from the early shutdowns, Mayor Andrew Knack extended the festival by one hour on Monday. “It was really heartwarming to see citizens come out to support our festival and support our cultural pavilions,” said Rohatyn, adding that Monday was likely one of the biggest days he has experienced with the festival. “It just speaks to the importance of our festival, that people can come with a pure heart and experience what Edmonton is all about.” Leading up to the festival was also a bit of a struggle for setting up as weeks of heavy rain saturated the freshly laid grass at Hawrelak Park. Grass access was limited by the city during set up to mitigate damage after recent renovations to the park. “We’re doing our best to minimize, prevent and keep the space in a state that people can come back and enjoy it in the coming days,” said Rohatyn. With only one way in and out of the park, surrounding roads were congested, backing up the Groat Road Bridge. Wilma Ho, president of the Edmonton Taiwanese Association, said two of her volunteers who took park-and-ride buses were two hours late to their shift at the festival. “I feel like we have a lot of space here. We can accommodate more people, but I think we have a bottleneck,” Ho told CTV News Edmonton. Rohatyn said he intends on discussing park-and-ride improvements with the city for future festivals. “It just speaks to the challenge (of) everybody wanting to come into the space at one time, but it’s certainly something that we can look at and how we can be more efficient.” There were also challenges for those choosing to drive and walk to the festival. The city said parking enforcement officers issued 266 tickets to vehicles parked in the area over the weekend and towed 43 vehicles. This was the Heritage Festival’s first year back at Hawrelak after upgrades to the park moved the event to Borden Park for three years. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Jeremy Thompson
