Edmonton’s Deep Freeze Festival faces challenges due to unplowed streets in Alberta Avenue, raising safety concerns for the expected 60,000 attendees
Frustration Over Snow Clearing Ahead of Deep Freeze Festival
An Edmonton winter festival is frustrated. They feel the city has not prioritized the Alberta Avenue community before this weekend’s Deep Freeze Festival.
The side street is a slushy mess, making parking difficult. Organizers believe this creates a safety risk for the 60,000 people expected to visit the neighborhood.
“We as a community are really concerned because that means people will be getting stuck in this very mushy oatmeal,” said Christy Morin, the artistic director of the Deep Freeze Byzantine Winter Festival. “We had the biggest snowfall, and now all the softness and the freezing at night and then the mushing and the thawing of the day.”
Bumpy roads and deep grooves are found throughout the neighborhood.
“My car in front, I destroyed it, in the back as well. It’s damaged because I’m driving a car. This is not shoveled up this morning. I lost my front underneath this. I’m going to have to go to the garage to fix that,” said Gabriel Briere, an Alberta Avenue resident.
Ewan Melville, another resident, said, “My mother and I were driving in, and we have an SUV, which is a relatively high vehicle. We saw trucks sliding in the ruts, and it’s crazy.”
As of Tuesday morning, residential snow clearing is scheduled for the day after the festival ends. However, organizers are asking the city and mayor to move up the snow clearing to Friday. The mayor says he is working on it.
“Recognizing we are a winter city, we have to work with all of our winter festivals to make sure we’ve created an environment where it’s easy to get, easy to navigate, and safe to move around,” said Mayor Andrew Knack. “I do think there’s probably a little work left in advance of the Deep Freeze getting started up this weekend.”
CityNews contacted the City. They say they cannot reschedule snow clearing due to a City Council policy, which aims to be fair to all neighborhoods.
However, the City states they have done extra clearing for the Deep Freeze Festival. This includes clearing the bus detour route, critical sidewalks, windrow removal along 118 Avenue, and clearing business district alleys/back lanes, plus deploying additional temporary sandboxes.
As for Morin, she says the community may need to take action. “We’re thinking that we might have to bring our own little Bobcats and community to come and start shoveling to get rid of this because we can’t have this type of snow for the weekend,” said Morin.
| Event | Date | Location | Expected Attendance | City Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Freeze Festival | This weekend | Alberta Avenue, Edmonton | 60,000 | Extra snow clearing done |
| Residential Snow Clearing | Day after festival | Alberta Avenue | N/A | Cannot reschedule due to policy |
