When you think of Evergreen Park in the summer, your mind naturally turns to all things horses. As the Grande Prairie Stompede, Alberta Derby, and weekly horse racing events normally take over the calendar year, but officials are hoping the success of the usual series of events can open the doors to even more.
“We really only produce a couple ourselves and that’s horse racing and the Agri Show. Pretty much all the others are produced by other groups and organizations,” says Marketing Director Don Moon.
Moon suggests that upcoming events, while still in the realm of racing, are beginning to branch out into more off-beat, fun events, including t-rex races.
“I got three videos sent to me within about half an hour, and it was a dinosaur race at a race track, with 16 or so dinosaurs coming out of the starting gate and I thought it was so funny.”
Moon says, however, the option of bringing in massive artists for a weekend festival, something they have done in the past, may not be the highest on the list of priorities.
“There have been discussions with how we can replace that, whether it’s ourselves or somebody else, it’s in the back of the minds. It’s getting so expensive to put things like that on, mainly with the dollar exchange rate with American artists getting paid in American dollars.”
Former large festivals which took place at Evergreen Park included Bud Country Fever, which was last held at the park in 2015.