The 2019 Canada Winter Games announced an award-winning entertainment lineup for the 52° North Music and Cultural Festival along with a performance by Canadian singer Scott Helman Tuesday.
Helman will join fellow headliners Alan Doyle, Bif Naked, Brett Kissel, Gord Bamford, The Strumbellas, Walk off the Earth, Wide Mouth Mason, Busty & the Bass, Frannie Klein and the Red Deer Symphony Orchestra.
More than 80 acts will perform over 10 days between Feb. 16 and March 1 when 3,600 athletes come to Red Deer to compete in 19 sports at the Games.
“When you have that type of talent that we can feature, I think that it just raises the level of the games. The true Alberta spirit — let’s go big and let’s go bold,” said Games board chair Lyn Radford at the entertainment launch held in the former Sears location at Bower Place.
Bower Place was one of Games’ six new sponsors announced Tuesday, and the former Sears site will also be the new location for the Games volunteer centre.
Bower Place and Navigator Ltd. are both gold sponsors, and Navigator is the sponsor of the Games media centre.
Bamboo Shoots Video Production, Clearview Market Dental and Production World are all bronze sponsors, and Production World is supporting the audio visual delivery of the Games.
Another bronze sponsor is Troubled Monk Brewery, which is the sponsor of the festival beer gardens.
“If we don’t have sponsors like the ones that have come on today we would really have to scale back our operations of our Games and that’s one thing we don’t want to do. Alberta has a terrific reputation for hosting great events, over and above,” Radford said.
Helman said he was very honoured to be an entertainer at the Games next year, even if it includes playing outside.
“I’m a Canadian boy so I grew up being cold so I’m cool with it,” Helman said before playing before the crowd who gathered for the launch.
He said he didn’t grow up watching sports but has grown to enjoy hockey.
“I got to meet Mike Babcock which was like a huge honour. Since then I’ve been a big Leafs fan,” said Helman who recalled his poor skating skills when he used to play shinny hockey.
“I didn’t know how to brake so I would fall over to stop,” he said with a smile.
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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