Weather forcing changes for Charlottetown holiday celebrations
Parade moved to Sunday, market going indoors
The City of Charlottetown is reworking some holiday festivities for this weekend due to weather.
Mother Nature is causing some restructuring to the Charlottetown Christmas Festival. The Christmas market and tree lighting will have to be moved inside and the parade has to switch dates.
P.E.I.'s Kings and Queens County are under a snow squall watch. Those areas could see up to 20 cm of snow by Saturday morning, according to the Environment Canada website.
"Mother Nature is kicking in and we have to work around that," said Wayne Long, events development officer with the city.
"The Charlottetown Christmas Festival market will now move from outdoors [to] indoors at the Confederation Court Mall. The tree lighting, which was to be at the Confederation Centre upper plaza will also move indoors at the Confederation Court Mall."
Rain changes to snow on Friday with 3-8 cm possible for western P.E.I. and 10-20 cm possible for central/eastern areas through Saturday night. Strong northerly winds (Sustained: 40-50 km/h - Gusts: 60-80 km/h) may result in blowing/drifting snow and <a href="https://twitter.com/confedbridge?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@confedbridge</a> restrictions. <a href="https://t.co/SuEdTvfxic">pic.twitter.com/SuEdTvfxic</a>
—@JayScotlandThe market kicks off Friday at 5 p.m. and goes until Sunday. The market will feature over 60 artisans, food vendors and more.
The tree lighting will happen Friday at 6:15 p.m.
Parade change
As for the parade, it is being moved from Saturday to Sunday, Long said, and will now take place Sunday evening at 5.
"A lot of planning has gone into this event, but obviously public safety is paramount," Long said. "We had to make these changes in order to save the weekend."
Long said he hopes everyone is able to make it out to the parade and other festivities.
"We are in the process of contacting all of our entries to ensure they are able to transfer their floats to the new date of the parade," he said.
Some road closures will also be in place to allow the events to happen.
Though the open-air market is moving inside there will still be outdoor events along Victoria Row Friday evening such as ice sculpting demos, a festive petting zoo, horse and wagon rides and a Christmas tree garden, the city said in a release.
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With files from Jessica Doria-Brown