More people attended the Servus Heritage Festival on Sunday than all of last year’s days – combined.
In fact, Sunday’s attendance shattered the all-time record for single-day attendance. In a news release, festival officials said an estimated 370,000 people went to Hawrelak Park yesterday.
“We are absolutely delighted to announce that we broke our one-day attendance record for the Festival,” Executive Director Jim Gibbon said.
Approximately 300,000 attended Heritage last year. The previous record was set in 2013 after 384,000 attended the three-day festival.
Officials also said more than 348,000 made their way to Hawrelak Park through the Edmonton Transit System’s Park and Ride.
Many Edmontonians took to social media to complain to ETS and the festival about how long it took them to get down to Hawrelak Park Sunday.
@EdmHeritageFest let people know to expect over 1 hour wait on Groat Rd if you're taking the bus. #yegtraffic #yegheritagefest https://t.co/Wkthd0VfvT
— Melody (@thingsmelssays) August 7, 2017
Nothing safe about cramming 50+people on a bus with no AC 25degree heat not moving for an hour now #doicall911 #yegheritagefest #yegtraffic
— Brendon Wilson (@Willie707) August 7, 2017
It's taken 50min to get from health sciences to groat road. Not even down the hill yet. Figure it out! #heritagedays #yegtraffic
— Brendon Wilson (@Willie707) August 6, 2017
poorly planned by #ETS. Over an hour and still not in park even #yegHeritageFestival
— Ken Lister (@kenlister1) August 7, 2017
You need a backup plan to let people out of the Groat busses or you will have problems. People getting angry
— Michael Lohner (@MichaelLohner) August 7, 2017
Yeah it was horrible. Kids were so miserable by the time we got there. Left half an hour later.
— Michelle Willcott (@MichElevate) August 7, 2017
Gibbon said the delays were caused by the massive attendance -- something they were not expecting.
"Nobody was prepared for those numbers," he said. "It’s something we’ll have to talk to ETS about, to try to figure out solutions for that in the future.”
On Monday at 12:42 p.m., Edmonton’s Food Bank said they had reached 60 per cent of their food goal. Their goal is to raise 50,000 kilograms before August 11.
“The number of people turning to the Food Bank is staggering,” Edmonton’s Food Bank Executive Director Marjorie Bencz said. “The Servus Heritage Festival is our single largest food drive and key at restocking our shelves. People may support our work at the Festival or throughout this week by dropping off non-perishable food donations at any major grocery store or fire station.”
To donate online, click here.
