Calgary Downtown Plan: $54M Bet on Festival Revival

CALGARY, ALBERTA — Downtown Calgary is throwing a party, and City Hall is betting $54 million that someone will show up.

The Chinook Blast festival kicks off this weekend, running January 30 to February 16, leading a parade of events designed to drag office workers, families, and skeptics back into a core that's been bleeding tenants since the oil crash. Teatro Restaurant reopens January 29. A Pink Floyd tribute hits the Werklund Centre January 29 at 7:30 p.m. Vivek Shraya performs there January 30, same time. The High Performance Rodeo wraps January 31. A Groundhog Day event closes the month at The Grand at 7:00 p.m.

It's all part of the Greater Downtown Plan, the City's multi-year play to turn vacant towers into apartments and empty sidewalks into foot traffic. Last year's Chinook Blast pulled 433,000 attendees in January and February 2025 alone, generating an estimated $15.7 million in economic impact for 2024. The Cold Start car show rolls into Prince's Island Park February 7.

The Money Game

Calgary's Downtown Strategy carries a 2026 budget of $54 million for operating costs and $2 million for capital spending. The pitch: leverage public dollars to unlock private investment. For every $1 the city spends on office-to-residential conversions through programs like the Downtown Calgary Development Incentive Program and the Downtown Density Bonusing Offset Program, officials expect to generate over $4 in private money.

Former Mayor Jyoti Gondek championed the strategy, tying events like Chinook Blast directly to job creation and recovery. The Calgary Downtown Association, a Business Improvement Area funded by member levies, backs the push to activate downtown spaces.

The Safety Problem

But there's a catch. You can stage all the festivals you want. If people don't feel safe getting there, they won't come.

The Calgary Police Service launched "Operation Order" in November 2025 and "Operation Jingle All the Way" in December 2025 to crack down on transit crime and disorder. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 583 has been sounding alarms about safety on CTrain lines for months, pointing to social disorder as a barrier to downtown access. A November 2025 investigation confirmed what transit riders already knew: violent crime on Calgary Transit has climbed over the past decade.

The current roster of events and reopenings aligns with the City's approved 2026 budget adjustments, which continue funding for the Downtown Strategy and related affordable housing initiatives. Whether the bet pays off depends on whether Calgary can fix what keeps people away in the first place.