Tourist Attractions you would like to see in Calgary

[H.E.Pennypacker]

Originally Posted by Jimby

The Crossroads Market is located in Ramsay which is pre-war inner city, and is adjacent to Inglewood, Calgary's original neighbourhood.
It is a great use of an old building which used to be a meat packing plant across the street from the site of the former historic Calgary Stockyards.
The second floor is home to the Loose Moose Theatre Company so it also serves as a performing arts venue.
If one is looking for an authentically Calgary experience with a zany cast of characters, then the Crossroads would be the place to go, but it isn't a touristy place. The ambience is not hip. The surroundings are bleak, although the new cop shop is a nice looking building.
Yes it would be nice to have a market right downtown or Beltline or Mission, but that isn't the present reality.

Actually there have been a handful of those older industrial buildings in that area bought and renovated nicely repurposed for office space .. Which is pretty cool to see

Touristy? Probably not .. But interesting nonetheless

[Chadillaccc]

Originally Posted by ue

Ottawa's many museums, as well as Musee des Beaux-Arts, the AGO, and even Edmonton's AGA (at least compared to Calgary's Art Gallery) do a good job with this. An international example I guess would be Mexico City, which has tons of world class museums, but they don't necessarily have Monet or Ansel Adams hanging. Instead, they focus specifically on Mexican and Latin American history and culture and have some of the best collections of Aztec artifacts in the world.

Calgary's Glenbow Museum doubles as the largest collection of art in Western Canada. So I'm not sure what you're getting at there, comparing the AGA...

[tsumetai]

A world class Music Festival on par with Tomorrowland, Ultra Miami, EDC Vegas, Coachella, Lollapalooza, etc. in or near Calgary (Banff).


Stampede is not considered a music festival though imo Stampede or near stampede time should segway into a music festival (similar to miami music week and Ultra Miami)

[McMurph]

We've got plenty of fine farmers' markets, particularly considering the lack of diverse and small-scale agriculture in Alberta. But we're lacking in anything that would be remotely interesting to a tourist. They are also for the most part all completely dependent on having a car.

I'd love to see the Mewata Armory turned over to a year-round farmers market (a real one, with actual food and local growers). On summer weekends it could spill over into Millennium Park. As the west end and west Beltline develop, that would be an attraction for tourists and locals alike. Keep the tanks and the history, just ditch the military. In the case of an actual war they can have it back.

[McMurph]

Originally Posted by tsumetai

A world class Music Festival on par with Tomorrowland, Ultra Miami, EDC Vegas, Coachella, Lollapalooza, etc. in or near Calgary (Banff).

Um... Sled Island?

http://time.com/52061/best-music-festivals-2014/

[*Stardust*]

Some great ideas here...

I love the idea of a video game museum! That is very unique something you wouldn't see in too many places.

A farmers market downtown is a must. Mewata armoury would be a great place. It would go well with the art gallery opening up and be part of the whole west village plan. I also like how it's close to the river.

Stampede park needs some reworking. Having some rides open and having an inner city calaway park could definitely work. The stampede grounds really need some more activity throughout the year.

How about a massive waterpark? Something to rival the one in west Edmonton mall?

I've always been a fan of the L.A live style entertainment complex. This needs to be done when we get our new arena

[Colin]

Originally Posted by McMurph

We've got plenty of fine farmers' markets, particularly considering the lack of diverse and small-scale agriculture in Alberta. But we're lacking in anything that would be remotely interesting to a tourist. They are also for the most part all completely dependent on having a car.

I'd love to see the Mewata Armory turned over to a year-round farmers market (a real one, with actual food and local growers). On summer weekends it could spill over into Millennium Park. As the west end and west Beltline develop, that would be an attraction for tourists and locals alike. Keep the tanks and the history, just ditch the military. In the case of an actual war they can have it back.

Love the idea of Mewata as a farmer's market.

[*Stardust*]

Originally Posted by Colin

Love the idea of Mewata as a farmer's market.

Somebody needs to pitch this idea to Evan Woolley!

[MasterG]

Originally Posted by McMurph

Um... Sled Island?

http://time.com/52061/best-music-festivals-2014/

Agreed. Sled Island is top notch, among the best festivals available anywhere. Amazing, amazing line-up, venues and experience. Truly one of the best and most under-reported week-events in the city.

Not to mention Chasing Summer (don't know if its going again this year) for EDM stuff and X-Fest, which is always surprisingly good at getting sweet acts (Jack White?!!). afrikadey & Folk Fest are another few that are in that 10,000+ attendees range and offer substantial quality. Also Reggaefest.

Anyone who thinks Calgary has a dearth of awesome music festivals and is interested in exciting live music is doing their lives wrong. More will always be better, but this is one area we are not lacking for a place our size.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Spring2008

Too bad the Stampede board appears to be incompetent. The area could/should be a big outdoor market like Granville, or even a potentially a strip of big, late night clubs with all that excess land that is underutilized most of the year.

Well, we almost had an area developed and anchored by a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville so thank God for their incompetence.

[woychukb]

Originally Posted by *Stardust*

Some great ideas here...

I love the idea of a video game museum! That is very unique something you wouldn't see in too many places.

When I was in Quebec City last fall they had a video game exhibit at the Musée de la Civilisation which was really well done with both artifacts relating to the evolution of video games and stations with playable games from every era. Looks like it was a temporary exhibit but it was just the sort of thing that I could see for a relatively small space somewhere in downtown or the Beltline.

[Innersoul1]

Originally Posted by McMurph

Um... Sled Island?

http://time.com/52061/best-music-festivals-2014/

That's a great link! Apart from Pickathon, you can see that the other festivals heavily rely in the big name headliners who are often repeated on a number of the bills. Sled Island is expertly curated and really is a music connoisseurs festival.

Originally Posted by MasterG

Agreed. Sled Island is top notch, among the best festivals available anywhere. Amazing, amazing line-up, venues and experience. Truly one of the best and most under-reported week-events in the city.

Not to mention Chasing Summer (don't know if its going again this year) for EDM stuff and X-Fest, which is always surprisingly good at getting sweet acts (Jack White?!!). afrikadey & Folk Fest are another few that are in that 10,000+ attendees range and offer substantial quality. Also Reggaefest.

Anyone who thinks Calgary has a dearth of awesome music festivals and is interested in exciting live music is doing their lives wrong. More will always be better, but this is one area we are not lacking for a place our size.

I think that a lot of people have visions of Calgary hosting a HUGE festival like Coachella, Ultra Music Fest or Lolapolooza. Kudos to Chasing Summer and X-Fest for raising the bar. I think its a great goal to work towards and our music scene is certainly doing the ground-work. At the moment I really don't think that we have a suitable venue to host anything like those. Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Folk Fest our largest music festival? I am not sure if Princess Island has the capacity to host anything larger. Fort Calgary also isn't ideal and I feat that as the EV becomes more developed as will the NIMBYism.

Coachella is honestly one of the BEST organized festivals I have been to. I don't think that we are there yet, nor are our promoters. The way we do food, beverage and toilets seriously needs to be refined.

[ue]

Originally Posted by Jimby

The Crossroads Market is located in Ramsay which is pre-war inner city, and is adjacent to Inglewood, Calgary's original neighbourhood.
It is a great use of an old building which used to be a meat packing plant across the street from the site of the former historic Calgary Stockyards.
The second floor is home to the Loose Moose Theatre Company so it also serves as a performing arts venue.
If one is looking for an authentically Calgary experience with a zany cast of characters, then the Crossroads would be the place to go, but it isn't a touristy place. The ambience is not hip. The surroundings are bleak, although the new cop shop is a nice looking building.
Yes it would be nice to have a market right downtown or Beltline or Mission, but that isn't the present reality.

Crossroads is just outside Ramsay yes, I never disagreed it over whether it was or wasn't far from pre-war urbanity but just because it's close (even if it were arbitrarily inside Ramsay or Inglewood's neighbourhood boundaries) doesn't mean it's the same as if it were say, on Atlantic Ave.

Originally Posted by Chadillaccc

Calgary's Glenbow Museum doubles as the largest collection of art in Western Canada. So I'm not sure what you're getting at there, comparing the AGA...

Glenbow is more of a general museum a la RAM, ROM, etc., no? It includes art, but that isn't all it showcases, therefore comparing it to the AGA in Edmonton is like comparing apples to oranges. Calgary's (rough) equivalent would be the Art Gallery of Calgary on Stephen Ave, which isn't the same, even with recent budgeting issues at the AGA in Edmonton. It would be nice for Calgary to have an art museum of at least similar standard (though hopefully with different interests).

[sync]

chasing summer is indeed back for 2014.

august 8/9.

pre sale tickets already sold out even though no artists have been announced.

[Riise]

Originally Posted by McMurph

I'd love to see the Mewata Armory turned over to a year-round farmers market (a real one, with actual food and local growers). On summer weekends it could spill over into Millennium Park. As the west end and west Beltline develop, that would be an attraction for tourists and locals alike. Keep the tanks and the history, just ditch the military. In the case of an actual war they can have it back.

I kind of like the fact that the Armed Forces have kept their operations downtown. It might not be a vibrant use of great space but they built the space and variety is the spice of life.

Originally Posted by tsumetai

A world class Music Festival on par with Tomorrowland, Ultra Miami, EDC Vegas, Coachella, Lollapalooza, etc. in or near Calgary (Banff).

While I would love for Calgary to hold something like Sensation, I'm more than content with Chasing Summer at the moment. Can't wait for it this year!

Originally Posted by woychukb

Looks like it was a temporary exhibit but it was just the sort of thing that I could see for a relatively small space somewhere in downtown or the Beltline.

I could see it operating out of two adjacent CRUs on 17th. One CRU would have a permanent walk-through the history of video games and the other could rotate exhibits.

[sync]

and i just remembered - let's not forget mad decent is back again this year.

http://maddecent.com/events/mad-dece...-2014-calgary/

[s211]

Originally Posted by ue

even with recent budgeting issues at the AGA in Edmonton

I was not aware of any issues. Are there problems?

[freeweed]

Originally Posted by Riise

It would be really neat if Calgary had a Video Game Museum. It wouldn't have to be massive and could be done on a small scale. It could be a part of a collection of small museums that I think would be nice for locals to have and the city to offer to tourists.

Absolutely. I volunteer my basement to start the collection (seriously, it's been proposed to me before). If only I didn't have to slave at the grindstone...

On a similar geek tangent, I wish Calgary promoted our Comic/Entertainment Expo more. We just smashed attendance records this year, bringing us up to 97,000 people through the gates. That is absolutely MASSIVE and I bet almost no one in the general public has a clue. While I'm not sure if everyone counts attendance the same way, we're somewhere around #3 in North America with numbers like that. Right behind the 2 biggies that most people know about, San Diego and NY. And yet I saw virtually no mention on the news. You'd think a nearly-100,000 person con would at least merit a daily nod while it's on.

And to wrap up the geek theme, I'd LOVE a science museum. Heck, if we wanted to make it a bit more ... I dunno, "local"... make a museum of energy. We've got a huge amount of fossil fuel history here, and given that that's been the energy source for the planet going on 2 centuries now... I bet we could create one hell of a place. Heck, get the O&G companies funding it, and allow them to talk nice about CO2 emissions and such. Win-win.

[ue]

Originally Posted by s211

I was not aware of any issues. Are there problems?

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Fundi...064/story.html

[Boris2k7]

Originally Posted by freeweed

And to wrap up the geek theme, I'd LOVE a science museum. Heck, if we wanted to make it a bit more ... I dunno, "local"... make a museum of energy. We've got a huge amount of fossil fuel history here, and given that that's been the energy source for the planet going on 2 centuries now... I bet we could create one hell of a place. Heck, get the O&G companies funding it, and allow them to talk nice about CO2 emissions and such. Win-win.

This takes me back to the mid-nineties, but there was once such a thing in the lower floors of a building on 7th Ave. Not sure where exactly it was or what may have happened to it, but my grandfather took me to it when I was a kid. It was small, but had a neat, light-up panel that showed all the drilling locations in Alberta. There was a small theatre room that had a film, on rotation, to explain to kids where fossil fuels came from.