First annual Crowfest this July in Blairmore

The Crowsnest Pass Chamber of Commerce preparing for the first annual Crowfest on July 21 and 22 in downtown Blairmore.

The CNP Chamber has joined with the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass, the Crowsnest Market and various other business partners to create an annual event with an outdoor market, live music, bouncy castles, pancake breakfast and more.

The Chamber used to host a lifestyle show, but they found people from out of town were coming in and over saturating the market, preventing local businesses from being able to sell as much.

“There are going to be a lot of local vendors there, so that’s what we’re trying to grab from the lifestyle show that we had and I’ll just kind of promote our local businesses,” said Kylee Warkus-Forget, Office Manager for the CNP Chamber.

This won’t be just an average outdoor market. It will feature sign-ups for outdoor adventures and local tours, local businesses will be invited to open a “pop-up shop” in Blairmore’s downtown and they will have a selection of local Indigenous artisans.

“We have some drummers and dancers showing up and then we have a big teepee that we’re going to display for the Friday,” said Warkus-Forget.

On Saturday, the events will not only be at Gazebo Park, but they are also able to close down the street all the way until the Greenhill Hotel, with all the market vendors going to be on the street.

“We have over 45 vendors for the Saturday that are going to show up, which is amazing,” said Warkus-Forget.

Numerous contests will be held on Saturday, including pie eating, donut eating, sumo wrestling and gladiator jousting. There will also be a chalk art competition, open to all ages.

“We’re trying to gather a bunch of people to create some chalk art on the street, we’ll block off a little area that they can draw in and then we’ll have judging and prizes,” said Warkus-Forget, “We’re opening it up to anybody, just come and design.”

DJ Phenomenorm will be performing at Crowfest on Friday, July 21 with performances until 10 p.m. other musicians performing at Crowfest include Kevin Smith, Bruce Peterson and Ranahan, Lani Folkard Music, The Calverts, The Decadent Phase and Tynan Groves from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday. 

The beer garden, from 5 to 11 p.m. on Friday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, will have a taste of the Crowsnest Pass with local brewers, distilleries, liquor stores and restaurants showing off their products. There will also be some local food trucks as well, running at the same time as the beer gardens on Saturday. 

“I am excited to see everybody out and about, just enjoying the Crowsnest Pass. We’re such an amazing little community and it’s just so wonderful to see all the support that we have. We have so many sponsorships that want to see this all come together. It’s just been really good to see the support,” said Warkus-Forget. 

This event was brought about through groups wanting to benefit the area and help drive tourism to the community according to Warkus-Forget. 

Major sponsors for the event include Riversdale Resources, Teck and TC Energy and then “a lot of local donors who support” as well. 

“We want to make this an annual event, so we want this to continue and grow as much as we can. We have a lot of volunteers that are helping us, our whole Crowsnest Pass Chamber of Commerce board is all volunteer based,” said Warkus-Forget.

To run the whole event smoothly between 30 and 50 volunteers would be needed for Crowfest. 

The Chamber is still looking for volunteers and sign-up can be done at signupgenius.com/go/10c084cada82babf9cf8-volunteer?fbclid=IwAR2K3IUMqNzZ0Baxo7oDmYc0jfxTNC5t29bhkV1_AMphbvYI80upP_h7H64#/