Flooding and highway closures have led to the cancellation of six performances at The Banff Centre.
The decision to do so was on account of artists and audience members not being able to make it to Banff, said Jill Sawyer, media and communications officer for the centre.
“It’s not the best option for us to cancel something, it affects a lot of people, but there’s just no other way around it right now,” she said, Friday (June 21). “For things where people are here on-site already, we’re going ahead with.
“Our Music For A Summer Evening concerts are still happening. We opened those up for and are offering them for free — we had a really great crowd last night — but events where the artists have to come into Banff, we’ve had to cancel them.”
Among the cancelled events are the Aboriginal Day celebrations (June 21), Performance in the Park (June 22), a film screening (June 23) and three performances of the Roots & Rhizomes residency (June 26, 27 and 29).
“All of the musicians for Roots & Rhizomes would have been trying to get here this weekend, and there’s no way for them to get here,” said Sawyer. “We’re really sad about that, it’s a special residency for us, with great performances and opportunities.”
As for the Performance in the Park, it was also a matter of crew safety.
“We don’t want to put our crew in danger, they would have been setting up an outdoor stage on the admin grounds, and that couldn’t have been done safely,” she said. “Any event we run like that, we’re insured for, and that’s typical for any large presenting venue like this.
“It impacts all of our partners though, such as the people who’d be down there selling food as fundraisers, so there’s all kinds of factors that are affected.”
While the Roots & Rhizomes residency cannot be rescheduled, The Banff Centre hopes to still bring Performance in the Park artist Serena Ryder to town.
“We’re hoping to reschedule, I know Serena was really looking forward to doing this concert here, so we’re hoping we can find another date for her,” said Sawyer. “She has such a huge fanbase here in the valley.”
The flooding has also led to the cancellation of the inaugural Banff Marathon, which was to be held Sunday (June 23).
“This decision was made upon review of many factors including safety, accessibility to Banff, the condition of the race route, and the allocation of local resources,” said race organizers, in a press release Friday (June 21).
“Organizers considered other factors with their decision including avoiding a draw of resources away from Canmore, the needs of local organizing committee members and volunteers affected by the flood in neighbouring communities, the delivery of equipment, and conditions potentially deteriorating on the race route.”
Race Director Laurin Duncan said, in the statement, “Safety is our No. 1 priority, and even though we are extremely disappointed to cancel the event, we felt it was the most responsible decision.
“We would like to thank all our participants for their understanding, as well as our team for the three years of hard work they put in trying to make this event happen.”
As Cave Avenue was also flooded, the Cave and Basin National Historic Site was closed as well, along with the opening of the First World War internment exhibit located there.
