All Is Bright 10th Anniversary Winter Festival

The challenge 

Winter on a commercial street can be quiet, cold, and empty, exactly when local businesses need foot traffic most. For ten years, the All Is Bright Festival has answered that with a single audacious idea: turn the darkest month into the brightest night of the year on 124 Street. Producing it for its 10th anniversary meant honouring a beloved tradition while pulling off a large-scale outdoor festival in the Alberta cold, with all the logistics, partnerships, and creative ambition that demands.

The big bet Don't shrink the event to make it manageable. Make it bigger, warmer, and more inclusive : a free festival drawing more than 10,000 people into the street for one unforgettable evening of light, music, food, and community.

What we did 

Katie Robertson, as co-founder and director of Northern Events Inc., produced the festival end to end:

• Two stages and a multi-site footprint, with more than a dozen performances spanning a deliberately diverse lineup from a Cree opera singer and Métis fiddle and jigging to steel drum, live bands, and a roaming drumline

• An Indigenous Pavilion, programmed in partnership with Fort Edmonton Park, the Canadian Native Friendship Centre, and the I.A.M. Collective, with interpreters and cultural programming at the festival's heart

• 40+ suppliers, a full slate of vendors, and dozens of volunteers coordinated across a single winter night

• A signature light-up ceremony bringing the community together with civic and provincial leaders

• End-to-end fundraising and sponsorship, securing grants and corporate partners to fund a free, public event

• Full marketing, PR, and media relations, earning citywide coverage across Global, CTV, CBC, radio, and a front-page feature in the Edmonton Journal

• Navigating 20+ municipal permits and compliance requirements: insurance, traffic, fire, liquor, noise, waste, to safely run an event on public space

  
  

The results

• 10,000+ festival-goers drawn to 124 Street on a single winter evening

• A free, fully-funded event delivered through grants and sponsorships

• Citywide media coverage, including a front-page Edmonton Journal feature

• A diverse, inclusive program that made newcomers, Indigenous communities, and longtime residents all feel they belonged

• A district that comes alive in its coldest, quietest season, year after year

  
  

The through-line 

This is what we do: take an ambitious creative vision and make it real: the programming and the funding, the magic and the 20 permits behind it. Big bet. Bigger results.