'A mythology for a generation': Actors, stunt people discuss lasting legacy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at Calgary Expo
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It's was not the response most people get at the Calgary Expo.
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On Saturday morning during a panel featuring stars from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle film franchise, actor Francois Chau was the last to come on stage after being announced as the 'villain' Shredder.
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Although not the original actor to play the supervillain — the part was played by James Saito in the first film — he was apparently convincing enough in the role to earn a smattering of presumably good-natured boos, a response generally reserved for villains in pantomimes and puppet shows.
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Chau, who is also known for playing Dr. Pierre Chang on J.J. Abrams sci-fi series Lost, seemed to encourage the reaction at first. He was also among the panelists who in the Parade of Wonders Friday morning, although he was not seated in the boisterous turtle car that featured cast mates Ernie Reyes Jr., Brian Tochi, Kenn Scott, and Robbie Rist. He was by his lonesome in his own 'Shredder car.'
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'It felt a little lonely,' Chau said. 'There was a little boy who was dressed as Shredder. I tired to get him to get into this car but he was a little too shy. I wouldn't get in the car with me either.'
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Saturday's panel was the second of two celebrating the 35th anniversary of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, just one aspect of what has become a pop-culture juggernaut of film, television, toys. comics books and inventive marketing. Originally created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as a comic book in 1984, the sewer-dwelling turtle brothers Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo had already been featured in an animated series and line of action figures before Irish filmmaker and music video director Steve Barron took the reins for the cinematic debut of the franchise in 1990.
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Shredder's lonely parade route notwithstanding, the main thrust of the panel discussion on Saturday was camaraderie and mutual admiration and plenty of deeply serious discussion about why a strange story of anthropomorphic turtles fighting evil in New York became such a sensation for so many decades.
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'This room is full of people who love this stuff, including us,' said Rist, who voiced Michelangelo in the first film, its 1991 sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and 1993's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. 'I don't see people doing this — and I'm not denigrating anybody 'else's art — but I don't see people doing this with Spy Kids, I don't see people doing this for the Emoji Movie. I wonder why, 35 years later, I have 40-year-old people coming up and wanting to talk about this thing.'
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Toronto Sun
29-05-2025
- Toronto Sun
Lost for seven years, Josh Holloway is back in driver's seat in Duster
Published May 29, 2025 • Last updated 0 minutes ago • 8 minute read "Duster" star Josh Holloway is headlining a series for the first time since "Colony" ended in 2018. Photo by James Van Evers/Ma / Max/Warner Bros. Discovery Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Josh Holloway was stranded in a Hollywood wasteland five years ago when the phone rang. It was J.J. Abrams, and he was offering a route out of the figurative desert – by way of a literal one. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The third and final season of the Holloway-starring series 'Colony' had aired more than a year earlier. Freshly 50, Holloway accepted that the dystopian drama was probably his last leading-man gig. If the offer came to play, say, a leading man's father? He'd be there. But that wasn't happening, either. 'My agents were like, 'Go take a vacation. You're not going to work,'' recalls Holloway, best known for playing the complicated con man Sawyer on 'Lost.' 'And I didn't for a long time.' Holloway embraced life as a stay-at-home dad while spending his spare time dirt biking, fly-fishing, meditating and steering his Airstream all over. He also honed his guitar skills and learned the piano. On the work front, Holloway dabbled in writing and pitched a reality show about ranch bunkhouses. (It didn't happen.) This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. So when 'Lost' co-creator Abrams rang out of the blue and began hinting at a job offer, Holloway says, he agreed before hearing the pitch. As Abrams subsequently outlined an image from the 1972-set crime series 'Duster' – a muscle car races to a phone in the desert, and out pops Holloway to answer the call – it dawned on the actor that one of Hollywood's most influential creatives was, in fact, shaping a show around him. 'At this age,' Holloway says, 'I really did not expect something like that.' But that didn't mean the lean years were over. Green lit by HBO Max during the pandemic, the pilot didn't shoot until 2021. That pilot was shelved amid the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, then reshot two years later. And the first season was mid-production in 2023 when the Hollywood strikes halted filming for the better part of a year. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. By the time 'Duster' premiered in May on Max, seven years had passed since Holloway last headlined a series. In the meantime, the 55-year-old's only jobs have been a recurring role as a duplicitous hedge fund manager on 'Yellowstone' and one episode of the anthology 'Amazing Stories.' 'With actors, if you don't see them for a while, you think that they're hiding in a closet or something,' his 'Duster' co-star Keith David says. 'People work. You don't see them, but they do work. So it's really wonderful to see him in a leading part. He's the kind of guy who can carry that.' Rachel Hilson plays an FBI agent who recruits Holloway's Jim Ellis as an informant. Photo by Ursula Coyote/Max Sure enough, Holloway still seizes the screen as if he never left it. As Jim Ellis, the rakish driver for a Southwestern organized crime kingpin (David) and an informant for an upstart FBI agent (Rachel Hilson), Holloway is parked right in his wheelhouse. With a sigh or a smile, Jim shakes off life-and-death developments as another day at the office. His shoulder-length locks flow in the desert breeze. Sarcastic quips roll off his tongue, and he throws around nicknames in decidedly Sawyer-like fashion. Yet there's torment and tenderness behind eyes that'll smolder one moment and flicker with sorrow the next. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It's a classic performance from a dying breed of actor: the career television star. Co-created by Abrams and LaToya Morgan, 'Duster' is a throwback to a forgone era of episodic storytelling, built around charismatic characters and pulpy thrills rather than A-list star power and prestige TV sheen. Driving it all is Holloway, a slick performer with an affinity for fueling his hard-knock characters with hard-knock life experience. 'He's added this quality of having lived a complicated life that is now embedded in his performance, along with his incredible good looks and his soulfulness and his charm,' says Carlton Cuse, a showrunner on 'Lost' and the co-creator of 'Colony.' 'It's just another weapon in his actor's arsenal.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. If Holloway resents the myriad movie stars and Oscar winners who have found refuge on the small screen over the past decade – making it all the harder for TV veterans to book rich roles – he hides it well. 'It makes sense to me,' he muses, 'just because that's where the creativity went. I mean, it's the golden age of TV.' 'I'm super sappy and goofy, but people have an image of me as, like, this cool guy,' Holloway says. 'I can lean into that cliché, but who I am is actually the other guy.' Photo by James Van Evers/Max Toning down the swagger and ramping up the silliness during a mid-May video chat from a New York hotel, the bespectacled actor is an easy laugh with a grin that persists through touchy topics. Far from tech savvy, he cautions people that he leaves his phone at home and might take 48 hours to respond to a text. ('It drives my friends and family crazy,' he concedes. 'I'm not of this era.') Raising an 11-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter with his wife, Yessica, in Southern California, he gleefully rattles off his responsibilities in the Holloway household – 'the Uber service, the cook, the maid, the freaking laundry guy' – and asserts that being a present father is his most cherished role. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I'm super sappy and goofy, but people have an image of me as, like, this cool guy,' Holloway says. 'I can lean into that cliché, but who I am is actually the other guy.' His 'Duster' co-star Hilson confirms as much. 'If you meet Josh, you'll probably within the first five minutes hear him talk about his kids and his wife,' she says. 'That's just who he is. I think we find ourselves drawn to this edgy character because he just brings to it this natural softness.' Holloway's Jim has been a mafia wheelman for decades when we meet him in 'Duster,' whose eight-episode first season runs through July 3. Bloody and breezy, raunchy and groovy – the series traverses tones while serving as a 1970s travelogue with pit stops involving Elvis Presley, Howard Hughes, Watergate and other period-appropriate touchstones. Whether he's chauffeuring goons, procuring blackmail material or trafficking illicit goods, Jim rarely sheds his devil-may-care mantra. But the character remains haunted by his brother's death years earlier and the discovery that their boss may have been responsible for the hit. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Even though he is obviously an incredibly handsome guy, there is a kind of sadness and anger under the wry and comedic surface,' Abrams says over email. '[Jim] has to be carefree and cool and funny and daring, but he also needs to be broken: someone who stopped evolving at a certain point, someone who is being challenged to wake up, reflect and be held accountable in his life.' Despite that heavy backstory, Holloway assures that playing Jim is mostly a blast – starting with the stunts. After attending Rick Seaman's stunt-driving school, Holloway shifted to lessons with driver Chris Peterson and learned 'every stunt in the book.' Asked whether he's taken those skills out in public, Holloways chuckles. 'I'd be doing that every day,' he says, 'but the computers are, like, anti-skid and this and that, and they just won't let you do it.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Then there's the opportunity to deploy his innate allure. Take a scene in 'Duster' in which Jim heads to a hospital and asks for the status of a gravely wounded patient he would rather not see pull through. Told by a female employee that such information is confidential, Jim flicks his hair, tilts his head and coolly replies, 'Then just give it to me confidentially.' Informed the man's outlook is dire, Jim smirks. 'Darling,' he says, 'you just made my day.' It's an ominous scene that, in Holloway's hands, plays as effortlessly suave. 'I grew up in a time where if you wanted to date, you had to flirt,' he explains through sheepish laughter. 'It wasn't on a gadget. You had to go out there and ask out girls and have some game.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. As showrunner Morgan puts it, Holloway constantly 'borrows from himself' on screen. Referencing Steve McQueen in 'Bullitt' and Walter Matthau in 'The Bad News Bears,' Morgan says she and Abrams leaned into Holloway's inherent appeal when writing Jim. 'We thought about characters that you want to spend a lot of time with,' Morgan says. 'Josh just brings that warmth.' Holloway acknowledges that every character he plays is a color from his kaleidoscopic persona. Raised in rural Georgia, he tried a slew of professions – construction, restaurateuring and modeling, among them – before giving acting a whirl. When he took a class from Corey Allen and the 'Rebel Without a Cause' actor preached the perks of channeling such experiences on screen, Holloway lit up. 'I'd just had a lot of life experience already to draw on,' he says. 'That's what it was: I want to do everything, so I'm an actor.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Although 'Lost's' Sawyer was deemed one of the show's least popular characters in audience testing, Cuse says the actor's deep-seated pathos led the writers to reimagine him as a reluctant hero. By the time the mystery-box series concluded in 2010, Sawyer was a fan favourite. 'That was a really satisfying arc,' Cuse says, 'that was only made possible because of what Josh had inside.' Riding the wave of 'Lost's' success, Holloway turned down a slew of network TV procedurals in hopes that a movie career would take off. After booking minor roles in the 2011 blockbuster 'Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,' the 2013 thriller 'Paranoia' and the 2014 action flick 'Sabotage,' Holloway grew impatient with big-budget film shoots and longed for television's expediency. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I always had two or three jobs at once since I was 11 years old,' Holloway says. 'I did a couple of movies, and I was so bored because you'd sit around so long. On TV, you just go to your trailer to change and that is it – you're back on set, and they're busting your butt.' That's not to say Holloway is done with film: He recently shot supporting roles in the musical 'Reimagined' and the crime drama 'He Bled Neon' and will topline an indie adaptation of the Louis L'Amour novel 'Flint' that shoots this summer. But after spending a decade between movie gigs, Holloway acknowledges that he's built more for the TV grind than the big-screen machine. After biding his time before 'Duster,' Holloway is relishing one more spin in the driver's seat. 'I'm a workhorse,' he says with a shrug. 'That's my character.' Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Tennis Sunshine Girls NFL
Winnipeg Free Press
05-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 11-17
Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 11-17: May 11: Singer Eric Burdon (The Animals, War) is 84. Actor Pam Ferris ('Call the Midwife') is 77. Actor Shohreh Aghdashloo ('24″) is 73. Actor Frances Fisher ('Resurrection,' ″Titanic') is 73. Actor Boyd Gaines is 72. Drummer Mark Herndon (Alabama) is 70. Former MTV VJ Martha Quinn is 66. Country singer Tim Raybon of The Raybon Brothers is 62. Actor Tim Blake Nelson ('Lincoln,' ″O Brother, Where Art Thou?') is 61. Actor Jeffrey Donovan (TV's 'Fargo') is 57. Bassist Keith West of Heartland is 57. Actor Nicky Katt ('Boston Public') is 54. Actor Coby Bell ('Third Watch') is 50. Cellist Perttu Kivilaakso of Apocalyptica is 47. Actor Austin O'Brien ('Last Action Hero') is 44. Actor Jonathan Jackson ('Nashville,' ″Tuck Everlasting') is 43. Rapper Ace Hood is 37. Singer Prince Royce is 36. Actor Annabelle Attanasio ('Bull') is 32. Musician Howard Lawrence of Disclosure is 31. May 12: Actor Millie Perkins ('Knots Landing') is 89. Singer Jayotis Washington of The Persuasions is 84. Country singer Billy Swan is 83. Actor Linda Dano ('Another World') is 82. Singer Steve Winwood is 77. Actor Lindsay Crouse is 77. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 75. Singer Billy Squier is 75. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 75. Blues musician Guy Davis is 73. Country singer Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn is 70. Drummer Eric Singer of Kiss is 67. Actor Ving Rhames is 66. Guitarist Billy Duffy of The Cult is 64. Actor Emilio Estevez is 63. Actor April Grace ('Lost,' ″Joan of Arcadia') is 63. Actor Vanessa Estelle Williams ('Soul Food,' ″Melrose Place') is 62. TV personality Carla Hall ('The Chew') is 61. Keyboardist Eddie Kilgallon (Ricochet) is 60. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 59. Actor Scott Schwartz ('A Christmas Story') is 57. Actor Kim Fields ('Living Single,' ″The Facts of Life') is 56. Actor Samantha Mathis (TV's 'The Strain') is 55. Actor Jamie Luner ('Melrose Place,' ″Profiler') is 54. Actor Rhea Seehorn ('Better Call Saul') is 53. Actor Mackenzie Astin ('Scandal,' 'The Facts of Life') is 52. Bassist Matt Mangano of Zac Brown Band is 49. Actor Rebecca Herbst ('General Hospital') is 48. Actor Malin Akerman ('Trophy Wife') is 47. Actor Jason Biggs ('Orange Is the New Black,' 'American Pie') is 47. Actor Rami Malek ('Bohemian Rhapsody,' ″Mr. Robot') is 44. Actor Clare Bowen ('Nashville') is 41. Actor Emily VanCamp ('Revenge') is 39. Actor Malcolm David Kelley ('Lost') is 33. Actor Sullivan Sweeten ('Everybody Loves Raymond') is 30. May 13: Actor Buck Taylor ('Gunsmoke,' ″Gods and Generals') is 87. Actor Harvey Keitel is 86. Actor Zoe Wanamaker ('Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone') is 77. Actor Franklyn Ajaye ('Car Wash,' TV's 'Deadwood') is 76. Musician Stevie Wonder is 75. Actor Leslie Winston (TV: 'The Waltons') is 69. Comedian Stephen Colbert ('The Late Show With Stephen Colbert') is 61. Drummer John Richardson of The Gin Blossoms is 61. Actor Tom Verica ('How To Get Away With Murder,' 'American Dreams') is 61. Singer Darius Rucker (Hootie and the Blowfish) is 59. Actor Susan Floyd ('All My Children') is 57. Drummer Andy Williams of Casting Crowns is 53. Actor Brian Geraghty ('The Alienist,' ″Boardwalk Empire') is 50. Actor Samantha Morton ('The Whale,' 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them') is 48. Bassist Mickey Madden of Maroon 5 is 46. Actor Iwan Rheon ('Game of Thrones') is 40. Actor Lena Dunham ('Girls') is 39. Actor Robert Pattinson is 39. Actor Candice Accola King ('The Vampire Diaries') is 38. Actor Hunter Parrish ('Weeds') is 38. Bassist Wylie Gelber of Dawes is 37. Actor Debby Ryan ('Jessie') is 32. May 14: Guitarist Gene Cornish of The Rascals is 81. Movie director-producer George Lucas is 81. Actor Meg Foster ('Cagney and Lacey') is 77. Director Robert Zemeckis ('Forrest Gump,' ″Back to the Future') is 74. Musician David Byrne (Talking Heads) is 73. Actor Tim Roth is 64. Singer Ian Astbury of The Cult is 63. Guitarist C.C. DeVille of Poison is 63. Actor Danny Huston ('John Adams' miniseries) is 63. Bassist Mike Inez of Alice In Chains is 59. Musician Fabrice Morvan of Milli Vanilli is 59. Singer Raphael Saadiq (Tony! Toni! Tone!) is 59. Actor Cate Blanchett is 56. Singer Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block is 56. Director Sofia Coppola ('Lost In Translation') is 54. Actor Gabriel Mann ('Revenge') is 53. Singer Natalie Appleton of All Saints is 52. Singer Shanice is 52. Actor Carla Jimenez ('Growing Up Fisher') is 51. Guitarist Henry Garza of Los Lonely Boys is 47. Singer Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show is 47. Singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys is 46. Bassist Mike Retondo of Plain White T's is 44. Actor Amber Tamblyn ('Two and a Half Men,' ″Joan of Arcadia') is 42. Actor Lina Esco ('S.W.A.T.') is 40. Actor Miranda Cosgrove ('iCarly') is 32. May 15: Actor-singer Anna Maria Alberghetti is 89. Counterculture icon Wavy Gravy is 89. Actor Gunilla Hutton ('Petticoat Junction,' ″Hee Haw') is 83. Actor-singer Lainie Kazan is 83. Actor Chazz Palminteri ('Analyze This,' ″Mulholland Falls') is 79. Musician Brian Eno is 77. Actor Nicholas Hammond ('The Sound of Music') is 75. Musician Mike Oldfield is 72. Actor Lee Horsley ('Matt Houston') is 70. Rapper Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five is 64. Actor David Charvet ('Melrose Place') is 53. Actor Russell Hornsby ('Grimm') is 51. Actor David Krumholtz ('Numb3rs') is 47. Bassist David Hartley of The War on Drugs is 45. Actor Jamie-Lynn Sigler ('The Sopranos') is 44. Actor Alexandra Breckenridge ('The Walking Dead,' ″American Horror Story') is 43. Guitarist Brad Shultz of Cage The Elephant is 43. Guitarist Nick Perri (Shinedown) is 41. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. May 16: Jazz drummer Billy Cobham is 81. Actor Danny Trejo is 81. Actor Bill Smitrovich ('Crime Story,' 'Life Goes On') is 78. Actor Pierce Brosnan is 72. Actor Debra Winger is 70. Actor Mare Winningham is 66. Violinist Boyd Tinsley of The Dave Matthews Band is 61. Bassist Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) is 60. Singer Janet Jackson is 59. Actor-singer Scott Reeves ('Nashville,' ″General Hospital') is 59. Actor Brian F. O'Byrne ('Million Dollar Baby') is 58. Singer Ralph Tresvant is 57. Actor David Boreanaz ('Bones,' ″Buffy the Vampire Slayer') is 56. Political commentator Tucker Carlson is 56. Actor Tracey Gold ('Growing Pains') is 56. TV personality Bill Rancic ('America Now,' ″The Apprentice') is 54. Country singer Rick Trevino is 54. Actor Khary Payton ('The Walking Dead') is 53. Rapper Special Ed is 53. Actor Tori Spelling is 52. Actor Sean Carrigan ('The Young and the Restless') is 51. Rapper B. Slade (A.K.A. Tonex) is 50. Actor Lynn Collins ('John Carter') is 48. Actor Melanie Lynskey ('Two and a Half Men') is 48. Actor Joseph Morgan ('The Originals,' ″Vampire Diaries') is 44. DJ Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers is 40. Actor Megan Fox ('Transformers') is 39. Actor Drew Roy ('Falling Skies,' ″Hannah Montana') is 39. Actor Jermaine Fowler ('Superior Donuts') is 39. Actor Thomas Brodie-Sangster ('Game of Thrones') is 35. Actor Marc John Jefferies ('The Tracy Morgan Show') is 35. Actor Miles Heizer ('13 Reasons Why,' ″Parenthood') is 31. May 17: Actor Peter Gerety ('The Wire') is 85. Singer Taj Mahal is 83. Drummer Bill Bruford of Yes and King Crimson is 76. TV personality Kathleen Sullivan is 72. Singer Enya is 64. Actor Craig Ferguson ('The Late Late Show,' ″The Drew Carey Show') is 62. Keyboardist Page McConnell of Phish is 62. Actor David Eigenberg ('Sex and the City') is 61. Guitarist O'Dell of Mint Condition is 60. Musician Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is 60. Actor Paige Turco ('The 100') is 60. Actor Hill Harper ('The Good Doctor,' 'CSI: NY') is 59. TV personality-interior designer Thom Filicia ('Queer Eye For the Straight Guy') is 56. Singer Jordan Knight of New Kids on the Block is 55. Singer Darnell Van Rensalier of Shai is 55. Singer Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age is 52. Singer Andrea Corr of The Corrs is 51. Actor Sendhil Ramamurthy ('Heroes') is 51. Singer Kandi Burruss (Xscape) ('The Real Housewives of Atlanta') is 49. Actor Kat Foster (''Til Death') is 47. Singer-songwriter Passenger is 41. Dancer Derek Hough ('Dancing With the Stars') is 40. Actor Tahj Mowry ('Smart Guy,' ″Kim Possible') is 39. Actor Nikki Reed ('Twilight') is 37. Actor Leven Rambin ('The Hunger Games,' ″Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles') is 35.
Calgary Herald
27-04-2025
- Calgary Herald
In photos: Calgary Expo 2025 at home in new venue
Article content The Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo opened Thursday in its new home, the expanded BMO Centre — and for Fan Expo HQ vice-president Andrew Moyes, the event was a resounding success. Article content Article content 'It's been a fantastic weekend,' said Moyes. 'We've all been waiting for this event to take over the entire BMO Centre and it's definitely delivered.' Article content The recently expanded BMO Centre opened in June 2024, nearly doubling the venue's space to become the largest convention centre in western Canada. Article content Article content 'I think the new facility has allowed us to level up the event and deliver a fantastic fan experience all under one roof,' Moyes said. 'There's always some trepidation when you're in a new house, so to speak, so we just wanted to understand how the whole event would work logistically, and I think it really passed with flying colours.' Article content Article content The Parade of Wonders also looked different this year, with a new route from Victoria Park, down Centre Street to 17th Avenue, and across the new Flores LaDue Parade to the new front steps of the BMO. Article content 'So there was a lot of newness this year, and despite best efforts with planning you never know until you add exhibitors, celebrities and fans to the mix,' Moyes said, adding attendance was on track to break the 100,000 mark. Article content 'All in all we're feeling really great about it, and very very positive for the potential that the new venue and just the overall community is heralding for future years. Article content 'It's been a great celebration, it's been really positive, and a really fantastic weekend for Calgary overall.' Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
