New Years Eve celebrations being canceled or altered due to Alberta’s latest public health measures are taking their toll on many Edmonton venues and businesses hoping to make up for revenue already lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Before the Omicron variant began its rapid expansion across Canada, The Starlite Room’s Tyson Boyd really felt like this New Years Eve was going to be different.
Boyd booked an interactive night circus and was hoping to see people excited to perform in 2022, but instead the live entertainment venue will be empty.
“It’s really difficult to even implement the restrictions that we are currently facing,” he said.
Before Christmas, Boyd was forced to tune out another event when some staff members fell ill with COVID-19.
“The new variant came very fast and we just had to make a few quick decisions,” he said. “But just before we decided to shut down before Christmas, we experienced how quickly this virus is spreading.”
Boyd said staff who are ill experience mild symptoms and isolate themselves at home.
While canceling events and closing the doors felt like the right thing to do, it’s also taking its toll, and the impact of the new variant is already being felt in the coming year.
“We are experiencing cancellations throughout January, so we will be closed for the month,” Boyd said.
Cancellations are happening all over Edmonton. The Kingsway Legion had big plans to ring in the new year. At first, tickets were sold for a steak dinner, music and dancing. When recent steps were taken to keep just 10 at a table without mixing, people started calling out to the legion and asking for refunds. One day before the scheduled date of the event, it was canceled.
“We had sold a large number of tickets (which have now been refunded) … and it cost us a significant amount of money,” said Kingsway Legion President Bill Fecteau.
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The event was going to help with construction costs. Fecteau said that all you have to do now is try to be optimistic.
“We expect things to change significantly in the new year and we can recoup expenses.”
Not all events were forced to cancel. Some places could be modified.
At Greta Bar, Taylor Iwaasa said the entire New Years event was tweaked to ensure everyone is safe.
“We were putting on a drag show,” Iwaasa said. “It was going to be a ticketed event… We were going to (have) a DJ and dance until closing.
“Based on the way things are going, I think there is a lack of buy-in for some of the events right now, so we are just focusing on filling the house and getting cigarette butts on the seats.”
Bars can only serve alcohol until 11pm. M. And they must close at 12:30 a.m. M. Iwaasa said that to adapt to the changes, Greta Bar will bring in the new year two hours early.
Ernie Tsu, president of the Alberta Hospitality Association, said this is all taking its toll.
“Many companies not only depended on the new year, it was the Christmas season, the corporate holidays that were reserved … the restrictions changed the perspective a lot,” he said. “Many of the features were canceled, and rightly so, without mixing or mixing.
“Any kind of restrictions that apply to hospitality are obviously devastating at the moment, as hospitality tries to come out of the last two years.”
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