About Chinook Blast
Chinook Blast is Calgary’s winter festival celebration that brings together partners from the arts, nonprofit, neighbourhood, tourism, and sports communities to create an inclusive event that showcases the best of our city.
Our vision is to create a heart-warming, must-visit, annual winter festival celebration in Calgary that advances existing cultural and sports offerings and fosters new winter experiences. We’re proud that Chinook Blast can bring some warmth to our winter city for all to enjoy!
What will Chinook Blast 2023 look like?
Everything that you loved and enjoyed in 2022 will be back, including our anchor events such as:
High Performance Rodeo: a 37-year performing arts festival in Calgary.
January 16–February 5
BIG Winter Classic: a 4-day music and arts festival.
January 25–29
Calgary Folk Music Festival’s Block Heater, Powered by ATB: one of the city’s fastest-growing music festivals.
February 9-12
Ethnik Festival: one of Calgary’s newest arts and culture festivals.
February 24-25
Light and art installations: located throughout the Chinook Blast Hub.
January 27 – February 12
Nitro Rallycross: an adrenaline-charged motorsport event that will showcase elite drivers like Travis Pastrana in the world’s most explosive electric race cars facing off at Stampede Park on snow and ice.
February 4-5
Snow Rodeo: FIS Snowboard Slopestyle and Halfpipe World Cups come to Canada Olympic Park! With the world’s top slopestyle and halfpipe snowboard stars present, it is a week of high flying action.
February 6-12
Family skating: located at Chinook Blast Hub
And more to come!
How We Began
From the Gust of an Idea to Chinook Blast
Our vision is to create a heart-warming, must-visit, annual winter festival celebration in Calgary that advances existing cultural and sports offerings and fosters new winter experiences. We’re proud that Chinook Blast can bring some warmth to our winter city for all to enjoy!
The Formation
In November 2019, the gust of an idea formed to create a major initiative that would bring Calgarians together in the midst of winter.
By spring 2020, that gust had grown into Chinook Blast, an event created where:
- Community spirit and pride would be fostered
- The downtown core would be energized
- The arts community would be celebrated
- And tourism would grow
Our 10 founding partners brought to Chinook Blast to life to take place in January and February, showcasing the best of Calgary’s art, music, theatre, sport, and recreation.
At its core, Chinook Blast was created to be an inclusive winter initiative that positioned our city as a vibrant place to live and visit.
What is a Chinook?
“A warm, dry, gusty, westerly wind that blows down the Rocky Mountains into the mountains’ eastern slopes and the western prairies. The chinook, an Indigenous word meaning “snow eater,” is most distinctive and numerous in the winter, when the unseasonable warming it brings differentiates it from the normal cold winter weather. ”
— The Canadian Encyclopedia
The Prevailing Wind
Just as planning began to ramp up in spring 2020, so did the COVID-19 crisis. With the help of our amazing partners, Chinook Blast persevered through two years of the pandemic and provided people the chance to get outside and enjoy the festivities.
Chinook Blast will continue to grow and become Calgary’s premier winter festival, welcoming Calgarians and people from around the world.
The Future
Chinook Blast will continue in future years. Together, we will weather the storm and, when allowed, gather to welcome tourists to the city we call home with an inclusive, vibrant winter festival.