Latest news with #CindyMcLeod
CBC
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Cowboys Park gets fresh public consultation after first phase prompts backlash
The city is calling for public feedback on the future of Cowboys Park, but the move comes after the city has already agreed to pave over some of the park's greenspace with asphalt, with no public engagement. Beginning this week, Calgarians can offer input on improvements they'd like to see to the function and layout of Cowboys Park, formerly known as Shaw Millennium Park, in the downtown west end. The online call for consultation is open until April 21. City administration plans to release a report in May on the results of the Cowboys Park feedback, which it says will help guide the future of the space. But the engagement arrives after the uncertainty surrounding the park has already prompted one popular annual festival to find another venue. Calgary International Bluesfest founder and producer Cindy McLeod was shocked to learn about potential changes to Cowboys Park in February, she told CBC host Anis Heydari on this week's episode of This Is Calgary. McLeod said the city sent her an updated map of the venue in February that appeared to show some of the park's greenspace paved over, and its stage and amphitheatre removed. The notice about these changes arrived too late, McLeod argued, adding that she waited as long as she could for confirmation about how the venue may change, but the lack of answers eventually led her to find a new home for her festival. It will instead be hosted at The Confluence, at 750 9th Ave. S.E., this summer. "I can't even begin to tell you how stressful it's been not knowing where we were going to land this year and what that might look like," McLeod said. "I've been selling tickets since last fall. I have artists booked, suppliers booked, so to pivot all those things is really quite a hefty task." The former Shaw Millennium Park has hosted Calgary's Bluesfest for 14 years. The park underwent a name change after its agreement with Shaw expired, and last summer, the city signed a 10-year naming and sponsorship deal with Cowboys. The deal will bring the long-running annual Cowboys Music Festival, which coincides with the Calgary Stampede, to the park beginning this summer. The city's new event centre displaced Cowboys Music Festival from its old location, necessitating it find a new home. Last summer, Cowboys said it would work with the city to upgrade the west-end park's infrastructure to invite more community use and attract more festivals. After the park's initial changes were agreed to without public consultation, McLeod said Calgarians should be able to provide input on the park's future. Replacing Olympic Plaza Allison Fifield, the city's community parks initiative lead, told This Is Calgary that Cowboys Park is losing 20 to 30 per cent of its green space in phase one of the park's transformation. That work was part of the agreement the city made with Cowboys in the first place. "There was no engagement that could happen on something that was part of a negotiated agreement," Fifield said. "This part we always knew was going to happen." The first phase of changes to the park, including upgrading utilities and paving over some of the park's greenspace, was paid for by funds from the city's deal with Cowboys, Fifield added. The city had been working with Cowboys since 2022 to find a way to partner and create a more vibrant downtown park, Fifield said. This was especially important for the city because it can no longer rely on Olympic Plaza as a venue with a hardened surface, due to its redevelopment. The deal with Cowboys allows Calgary to create another event venue to use in Olympic Plaza's place. The amount of money the city is receiving from its deal with Cowboys is confidential, Fifield said, because publicizing such details would put the city in a worse negotiating position for future sponsorship agreements. While she understands the distrust Calgarians may feel about the deal's details being confidential, and how the city didn't engage the public for feedback about the first phase of the park's evolution, she said the agreement was made with Calgarians in mind. "The basic structure of the park isn't changing. We're just updating it," Fifield said, adding the park hasn't had a refresh in decades. The park's basketball court, skate park and volleyball courts will all remain, she said. Looking ahead, Fifield said the city wants to hear about what Calgarians want to see to improve the park in phase two, and how they want to use it. She suggested possible ideas could include winterized washrooms, other sports facilities, and the capability to host more food trucks or markets. Site design not part of council decision Cowboys Park falls in Ward 7, represented by Coun. Terry Wong. He told This Is Calgary that after the city's deal with Shaw expired, a request for proposal went out for a new park sponsor, with Cowboys answering the call. Wong said details about site preparation weren't part of city council's discussion when it approved the deal with Cowboys. "What we were presented with was a business case [and] the economics associated with it, as opposed to how it was going to be activated, how it was going to be designed, how it was going to be used. That part wasn't fully fleshed out at the time," Wong said. What needs to be weighed now, Wong says, is retrofitting Cowboys Park to make it a multi-purpose area that can host more events and festivals in a part of the city that he notes has few such activities, against what the community wants the park to be, as it's typically been used for recreational purposes in the past.
CBC
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Calgary International Blues Festival organizer calls proposed changes to park venue 'heartbreaking'
Social Sharing The organizer of a major Calgary music festival says she's heartbroken over changes to the former Shaw Millennium Park that she says will turn the green space into a "giant parking lot." Cindy McLeod, founder and producer of the Calgary International Blues Festival, noticed the pending changes earlier this month when the city sent an updated map of their venue, now called Cowboys Park, at the west end of downtown. She says the details are limited but it appears most of the park's green space will be paved over, and the amphitheatre and raised stage will be torn down. "It's just going to be like a giant parking lot," said McLeod, "It's heartbreaking, really." The Bluesfest is scheduled to run July 31 to Aug. 3, 2025. For the past 14 years, it's been held at the park, which is next to Mewata Armoury. Previously, it took place at Victoria Park and before that at Pumphouse Park. Organizers and attendees celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. McLeod says it now welcomes about 17,000 visitors over the four-day event. CBC News reached out to the City of Calgary for details on the changes to the park. In an email, a spokesperson for Calgary Parks said more details would be provided at the end of the month. McLeod says the redesign came as quite a shock — both as an organizer and frequent user of the park. "When you have a public asset that the community utilizes regularly, you know, it's a very odd thing that there was no stakeholder engagement," said McLeod. Now with the clock ticking, and so much on the line, she worries about the impact to this year's Bluesfest. She says the asphalt would be hot for volunteers and attendees, and she says they don't have enough money to purchase a huge tent. McLeod says she knew changes would be coming to the site as far back as December 2023, when the city sent a notice stating the festival was being evicted. She says she was eventually told they could stay. Then in July 2024, it was announced that Cowboys had signed a 10-year naming and sponsorship deal with the city. That meant Millennium Park would become Cowboys Park, and the long-running Cowboys Music Festival would relocate there this summer. At the time of the name unveiling, Cowboys said it would work with the city to upgrade and enhance the park. But McLeod says they hadn't been able to find out exactly what that meant despite repeated requests to the city and Cowboys until they got the updated map on Feb. 3. CBC News sought an interview with the owner of Cowboys, Paul Vickers, but did not receive a reply. McLeod says that at this point, they've already sold a lot of tickets and it's too late to switch venues. Besides, she says, there are limited options in the city.
