Quesnel SkyFest Numbers Not What Organizers Had Hoped For

The attendance numbers were down for this year’s SkyFest event in Quesnel.

Media spokesperson Sharon McDonald goes over some of the numbers…

“Over the total weekend we had a little over 51-hundred paying customers, so it is very, very disappointing to us as a SkyFest committee and for the City and also very disappointing for our vendors. Our last show we had over 12,000 and we had geared up for between 15 to 20,000, and of course our vendors that came out brought supplies gearing up for those same numbers.”

The last show was in 2015 as it was cancelled in 2017 because of the wildfires.

McDonald says there were fewer than a thousand people at the Twilight Show on Saturday night.

She says she’s not sure if having to move it from Friday night because of the weather had an impact on those numbers.

As for the possibility of not having a Quesnel SkyFest event in 2021, McDonald had this to say…

“You know that’s always a possibility, but this year with the numbers being so incredibly low, and those are paying customers, so once we do all the tallying of bills that still need to be paid, we’ll have a better understanding of where we’re at in terms of money, but it doesn’t look good.”

McDonald says they are now trying to figure out why the numbers were down this year…

“We have heard from customers and vendors and people that are volunteering, that we’re competing with Arts Wells which is on the same weekend, it is a long weekend and a lot of people leave town, but the show is every two years so people have two years to prepare that the long weekend in August, BC Day, is SkyFest so, I don’t know, it’s a head scratcher and we’re open to suggestions, if people have suggestions and comments and positive things that we can do to appeal to more people, we’re open to that, please send them in.”

Suggestions can be sent to their website at QuesnelSkyFest.ca or to their Facebook Page.

An on-line survey is also available.