Lethbridge College ready to celebrate Coulee Fest
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 13, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com Lethbridge College is ready to open its doors to members of the community to enjoy their fifth annual Coulee Fest Saturday with a bigger and better event for the whole family.Manager of alumni and engagement, Stephanie Savage spoke to the Herald Tuesday and said the college could not be more excited about this year’s event.
“We’re pretty excited to see the differences from the first year to now, see how big it’s grown, and how much we’ve added to the event to make it even more special,” said Savage.
She said this year Lethbridge College has incorporated multiple community partners to the event to give those in attendance an opportunity to be more engaged with them.
 “For example, Canadian Tire is sponsoring our kids’ zone and it’s an opportunity for us to not only network with individuals in our community but provide some of our partners an opportunity to get in front of other community members,” said Savage.
 She said the college also incorporated the Kodiaks sports teams into this year’s event for people to have a chance to challenge them and test their skills\.
 “You can challenge your skills against the Kodiak athletes. We’ll have some volleyball activities, basketball, soccer, and running in a way to incorporate all of our sports that we have here at the college,” said Savage.
She said the college is also bringing back the classics that are loved by many including food trucks, beer gardens and market. The petting zoo will give everyone a chance to pet animals that they would normally had the opportunity to pet, as well as the chance to get close and personal with some heavy equipment and take a ride in a horse drawn carriage.
“This year the kids’ zone will include our face painter, balloon artist, Indigenous crafts run by our Indigenous services team, and new this year the Southern Alberta Art Gallery is coming to help make their own buttons and also new this year we’ll have a mini kid-coaster in that area where kids ride on these little cars down a ramp, it’s super cute, and it’s just geared towards that young demographic that wants to come and just have a little bit of fun,” said Savage.
She said this year organizers were focused on making most activities accessible to everyone and with the exception of the kid-coaster everything is geared to everyone’s enjoyment.
“We’ve tried to find a way to also have adults participate in some of the child-friendly activities, so we have something that’s called the pony cycles, which are hilarious. They are bikes that look like ponies, and you actually have to gallop on them to move them forward, and I made sure I got sizes for adults, teens and kids,” said Savage.
Another activity that will be geared to everyone in attendance will expose to people to a different culture.
“We have our international students doing free henna for people at the event. It’s a nice way to incorporate some of the culture that we see around campus in a way that’s fun and still in theme with the event,” said Savage.
And as far as entertainment goes, Savage said that among multiple local performers, headliner Brayden King will be flying in from performing at the Canadian Country Music Association awards in Hamilton, Ont. to perform at Coulee Fest and flying back to the CMAs right after to finish off the weekend.
“He was actually on American Idol and now he lives in Lethbridge, so we’re pretty excited to have him entertain our city,” said Savage. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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