Patricia Street, which is normally quiet, transformed into a bustling affair for Jasper in January鈥檚 closing event, the annual ATCO street party on Jan. 28.
Complete with live music, games and drool-worthy food, the crowds mingled, laughed and danced as clowns on stilts, fire throwers and jugglers sauntered by.
Along with the numerous street performers, popular folk-rockers Shred Kelly lit up one end of the street with a performance filled with catchy, clap-along ballads.
As the evening led into night, the crowds slowly shuffled to Centennial Park, where a brilliant display of fireworks entertained the crowd.
Once the light display came to a fizzling end, the crowd split up, scattering to a slew of other events including the sixth annual Loud and Proud party at the Whistle Stop Pub, which featured some of Jasper鈥檚 favourite drag queens.
Prior to the street party, Tourism Jasper in collaboration with various businesses and groups hosted three weeks worth of events, from Jan. 12-29, for the 28th Jasper in January festivities.
鈥淲e had amazing events, some reoccurring and some new. We collaborated with business partners and stakeholders and overall there was a lot of collaboration that went into the festival, which resulted in more events,鈥� said Myriam Bolduc, production development specialist with Tourism Jasper.
While official numbers aren鈥檛 in yet, Bolduc said the three-week event attracted visitors from all over, which led to high hotel occupancy rates during the last two weeks of the festival.
鈥淚 know for the last weekend most of the hotels were sold out so that鈥檚 great. The first weekend was a bit more of a challenge as usual because it鈥檚 only two weeks after Christmas, but overall it was good and we should expect to see official numbers in a few weeks,鈥� she said.
Annual events like Mountain Park Lodge鈥檚 chili cook-off, Wine in Winter and the Hopscotch and Wines Festival were well attended as usual, said Bolduc.
Kayla Byrne
[email protected]
