Festival and construction affected by the Edmonton rain

Edmonton is getting another round of non-stop rain this weekend, but that didn’t stop edmonton from being a place for festivals. Including the works art and design festival in Churchill Square.

It is the 41st year of the festival with music and visual art exhibits that will be showcased for visitors in downtown on Saturday morning.

“Normally, we will see 100,000, 150,000 people over the 12 to 13 days,” said Amber Rooke, the executive director of the Works Art and Design Festival.

But the rainy season met with a lower number in the first six days, affecting their fundraising and donations if the rain continues.

“If we close this festival and get a total rainout, then we may be looking for some additional support from the community in order to meet our goals for the end of the year. But as I said, it doesn’t affect us being here,” said Rooke.

The weather isn’t stopping this blacklight painting vendor from enjoying the festival, especially with her first time joining the event.

“Even though it’s raining out. I’m actually quite excited about the rain too because there’s a lot of overcast and it’s slightly a bit darker. And for me, what that means is my paintings glow even brighter,” said Lucy Cook, a vendor.

While some events continue rain or shine, some projects have to be postponed.

“Can’t really do any dirt work. The site’s a bit of a disaster,” said Josh Nowochin, project lead of the Edmonton Mountain Bike Alliance.

Nowochin says the rainy summer is causing the trails to be unsafe for mountain bikers and has to allocate volunteers to fix the trail, rather than focusing on the construction. Pushing the grand opening to July 25th.

“Because it’s been raining for about 4 weeks, we haven’t been able to do any work on site. We’re looking to reschedule tentatively to September,” said Nowochin.

Environment Canada is putting Edmonton in an orange, severe weather advisory, forecasting a total of 40 to 70 millimetres of heavy rain.

The rain caused flooding in parts of the Yellowhead Trail, but later reopened in the afternoon. Back in downtown Edmonton, despite the periods of rain, Cook will still enjoy the festival and hopes people will come, rain or shine.

“I’ll take the sun wherever I can get it, but for the time being, I’ll be the sun,” said Cook