Spence Street Festival Fail?

In late August, The University of Winnipeg Students’ Association held their first Spence Street Festival, meant to promote neighbourhood interactions and orient international students with the campus. But did it succeed?

Their biggest daily turn out was 300 people, with some days only attracting 100. Despite a lot of media attention from online sources, people failed to go out of their way to Spence Street.

“It seemed to be a huge undertaking of human resources from the UWSA … which may not have been worth it. There should be some adjustments to make it a bigger deal next year,” said Fabian Suárez-Amaya, a U of W student and University of Winnipeg Student Association’s (UWSA) director of education.

The two week festival featured a first week of lunch hour yoga, followed by a second half of local performers, student groups and artists. With no one on campus, the festival seemed to lack its desired effect of bringing the neighborhood together. Two of the festival days were cancelled due to rain and with no rain location, it put a damper on the rest of the week.

The UWSA could have used the Bulman Centre instead of canceling those days completely, and should have been prepared for Winnipeg’s temperamental weather.

U of W student Dylan Jones-Drewniak attended the festival on Wednesday, noting that the crowd grew significantly during the lunch hour.

“(The UWSA) worked their best around the weather, the vast array of entertainment and local talent was great to see. But I would have liked to have seen more stands for community organizations,” said Jones-Drewniak.

UWSA President Jason Syvixay used as much local talent as possible for the event, perhaps to compensate for bringing in out of town acts for O-Week.

I understand Syvixay’s goal to support campus and community interactions, but having a festival at a university during the summer seems a bit redundant. The first few weeks before school could have been spent working on issues for the new school year, not planning a party.

At least the UWSA got funding from the university for this initiative. I would hate to have seen them spend thousands of dollars from their budget on such a small function. Plus they got to keep whatever money was left over from the $5,000 the university provided.

Maybe next year they can manage to bring more students out, and hopefully the weather will co-operate.