In 2017, after a conversation with his oldest daughter, Pete Lewis, owner of Airdrie Paint and Blinds, was inspired to create more opportunities for his children and other kids to learn and grow. He realized that his city of Airdrie, Alberta, was one of the largest cities in Canada without a major children’s festival. As a small business owner in the city, he could do something to change that fact, and in 2018, the first annual Airdrie Children’s Festival was held.
“We wanted our festival to be different and fully inclusive, so it had to be free for everyone to attend with no marketing on site,” Lewis says. “We wanted kids to come and just be able to be kids. Everything we planned for the festival was viewed through a lens of creating curiosity, inspiring creativity or removing fear.”
The festival includes an Entertainment Stage with local and national performers, Inspiration Stations with hands-on learning and a Children’s Village that provides a safe place to play. The festival also includes workshops where kids can learn everything from knitting to changing a tire to creative writing.
In the first two years, over 12,000 kids attended the festival. Both the 2020 and 2021 festivals were canceled because of the pandemic, but the event returned in 2022.
Lewis says serving as board chair for the festival is a labor of love, but has allowed him to interact with his community in ways he never imagined.
“It’s a solid relationship builder. For all the time it takes away from working in our store, the rewards come back to us ten-fold,” he says. “It’s the best marketing we could do.”
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