EDMONTON -- The popular downtown Christmas parade has been cancelled due to lack of corporate interest and a drop in sponsorship according to organziers.
RWE Events says it would love to have the parade, and public support has always been good, but a lack of sponsorship has led to the cancellation of the parade.
The event is also lacking in paid entries in the parade, and is too expensive to run without them.
“In 2018, the Grey Cup committee was happy to include some of our floats in their parade, but even then we were struggling to get entries,” said RWE Events CEO Richard Skermer said in a statement to CTV News Edmonton.
He said the price-tag, often upwards of $150,000, was too much for RWE Events to cover without sponsorship dollars or paid entries.
“We’ve used our own dollars to help put this on, but without entries, it is hard to make a parade long enough to keep the crowds happy.”
Skermer said when the cancellation was announced in March, they received letters from some downtown organizations asking to look at options.
“That was March. We heard nothing back since… until today. It just isn’t important enough to the movers and shakers to want to be a part of this I guess,” said Skermer.
“While we too are disappointed in the lack of a downtown parade this year, and we are happy to produce one again, it will take more than me, and others, digging into their personal savings yet again.”
The parade will be back in 2020, if corporate support or paid entries come through.
