Large, 10-day winter festival planned for Regina in February

Several community organizations have merged together to plan a large winter festival they hope will snap Regina residents out of their winter doldrums.

The festival is expected to take place from Feb. 4 to 13 in four locations: Wascana Park, downtown Regina, the Warehouse District and the Regina Exhibition Association Limited campus.

Leasa Gibbons is the executive director of the Warehouse Business Improvement District, which is one of a number of groups on the organizing committee. She said the festival was borne out of the city’s winter strategy.

“The vision is to really get people engaged in the wintertime when we tend to hibernate and stay at home. (It’s) another way to view our environment that isn’t just from our couch but to gather again as a community in an outside safe environment,” Gibbons said.

A report to the city’s executive committee includes a list of some of the activities. Some of them include a youth hockey tournament at Wascana Park, crokicurl, concerts downtown, horse and wagon brewery tours through the Warehouse District, and a return of Iceville at Mosaic Stadium on the REAL campus.

“We hope to see some firepits and using light to embrace our early darkness that we see in the winter and really creating a sense of community and gathering in the winter,” Gibbons said.

The report notes the programming is not finished and there will be consideration given to make the activities more accessible. As well, there will be some thought as to how to celebrate the First Nations community, advance reconciliation and engage diverse cultural groups.

Further, events at Wascana Centre, downtown and the Warehouse District will be free while those at Evraz Place will have an “affordable ‘one-ticket’ price.”

“Whether that’s financial or physical … we’re working to make sure that what we’re creating is a space for everyone to gather. And everyone can find an element that they can engage with,” Gibbons said.

The city’s executive committee is being asked to recommend that council support the event with a grant up to $150,000.

Gibbons said the business improvement district regularly looks at other cities across the continent to see how they embrace “difficult temperature conditions,” whether it’s the heat in Florida or the cold in the Yukon. She pointed to festivals like Winterlude in Ottawa and Ice on Whyte in Edmonton as events Regina can learn from.

The festival committee has set a few targets for the event, which it hopes will give the local economy a shot in the arm: Create $2.5 million of economic impact in the first year, create $5 million of economic impact by the fifth year and attract 10 per cent of guests from outside the community.

“Definitely, the work is on our part to make sure what we’re doing is interesting enough and engaging enough to get folks out of their houses,” Gibbons said.

Library seeking budget increase

The Regina Public Library (RPL) has provided the executive committee with its budget presentation for 2022.

The library is seeking a mill rate increase of 2.46 for next year. That works out to an increase of $4.80 per year or 40 cents per month for the average homeowner.

RPL’s report includes an overview of the pandemic’s impact on library services. During that time, the library has had to close, reopen with capacity limits and then open fully as of July 11.

It says branches in the suburbs were used regularly, with curbside pickup “heavily accessed” and circulation numbers staying consistent.

As downtown workers were working from home, the central branch saw fewer materials borrowed and fewer older people visiting during the winter. Some used the branch’s curbside pickup service but the home delivery service “boomed” during the pandemic.

Most of the customers at the Central Library were there to access technology, using the Wi-Fi, computers and printers.

“The majority of print jobs completed were resumes, job applications, immigration forms, and school-related materials,” the report says.

Last year, RPL expanded the reach of its Wi-Fi outside of branches and continued that service this year. It says uptake from residents was high.