Edmonton festivals battered — but still standing — after powerful summer storm

It was a moment that would have been at home in a B-movie. On Friday evening, as organizers cleaned up after a performance at Found Festival in Old Strathcona, a grey-green wall of clouds approached from the northwest, carried by a violent blast of wind. Within moments, all eight crew festival crew were clinging to [...]

It was a moment that would have been at home in a B-movie. On Friday evening, as organizers cleaned up after a performance at Found Festival in Old Strathcona, a grey-green wall of clouds approached from the northwest, carried by a violent blast of wind. Within moments, all eight crew festival crew were clinging to a 300-square-foot pavilion tent, fighting to keep it from becoming airborne.

“It was all hands on deck trying to save as much as we could,” said Mac Brock, the arts festival’s managing producer. “One of our technicians, Mike Tully, had the quote of the night: ‘Forget the tents, get the equipment in the truck!’ ” Similar scenes played out across Edmonton Friday as a powerful summer storm blasted the region, downing power lines, felling trees and causing mayhem across a city hungry for a spell of normal summer weather.

The storm, which produced tornado alerts in St. Albert and neighbouring counties, flooded Telus World of Science and Yellowhead Trail, downed trees on 97 Street north of 111 Avenue, and sent sports fans and festival goers scrambling for shelter. Utility company EPCOR warned that more could be on the way. Whyte Avenue Artwalk, next door to Found Festival in Mcintyre Park, counts itself among the lucky.

The festival had wrapped for the day and artists had for the most part taken their wares home. Producer Jill Roszell and a handful of security guards were wrapping up for the day when they were hit by a strong downward gust. She watched as a traffic light at 104 Street and 83 Avenue buckled into the roadway.

“It just all came down,” she said. “It looked like a movie.” Around nine of the 40 or 50 tents kept at the park overnight suffered damage, Roszell said.

Even then, some artists who live further south had no idea the storm was happening at all. “We had artists who were (on the) south side who had no idea what was going on that we had to bring back. (They were like) ‘What?

what do you mean?’ ” A traffic light downed by a severe thunderstorm is seen at 83 Avenue and 104 Street in Old Strathcona July 10, 2026.Lori Frank, a painter, was among the artists picking up the pieces Saturday. “We were trying to assemble piles of things — tent walls here, weights there, and (display) grids.

It was pretty shocking, but bottom line is nobody was hurt.” Frank and her fellow artists were back up and running Saturday morning. The festival through 5 p.m. Sunday.

“The story in some ways is how easy we got off, all things considered,” Roszell said. Further north, Telus World of Science was less lucky. The building started to take on water around 7:40 p.m. Friday, prompting an evacuation.

The flooding is “extensive,” forcing the centre to close until further notice, president and CEO Constance Scarlett said in a news release. “I am incredibly grateful to everyone who helped keep our guests safe and to the City of Edmonton and restoration crews who responded so quickly,” she said. Found Festival ultimately managed to save its sound equipment.

The takedown crew huddled in the back of a truck until the storm passed. While sheltering, Brock received word that another of their venues, which was hosting a theatre production, had flooded. “We managed to get all the performers and the audience upstairs, and they did a reading of the show on the main floor.

The audience got a little bit of a different experience that night.” Brock said the art and performance festival, which runs through Sunday, was going ahead as planned as of Saturday afternoon. “The biggest impact it’s had on us is getting people back out this weekend,” he said.

“We’re kind of used to rain or shine, but a bad (storm) like this that keeps people home ... the financial impact of missing our whole festival weekend, if folks aren’t able to get out and enjoy some stuff happening in the city, is pretty massive.” A changing climate and increasingly chaotic weather has become a difficult reality for summer festivals, he added. “If it’s not storming and raining constantly the last few summers, then we’re dealing with smoke instead, and that has the exact same impact.

The reliability of being able to have outdoor events is getting harder and harder, particularly when we have such a short season.” Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters. You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber.

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