City’s entertainment businesses can’t wait to get going full steam ahead

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on June 30, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

The entertainment industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and local business owners are excited for a return to normalcy when the province fully opens on Canada Day.

For Mr. E’s Solve-it-Tourism’s escape rooms, restrictions have changed often, but most notably group sizes shrank and household-only rules caused business to slow. Owner Ryan Gilchrist says he’s ready to see friends try to solve puzzles and escape the rooms together again.

“I’m excited for a lot of reasons, my biggest excitement is I’m just excited to see people again,” he said. “I’m excited for people to be enjoying themselves and I love my job so much, it’s the best job in the whole world, like seeing people spend quality time together and enjoying time out with friends and family, and so I’m excited just to get back just for the fact I look forward to seeing people again.”

Gilchrist says he can tell normalcy is on the way because he’s already booked bachelor and bachelorette parties, which means weddings are on the horizon.

Attempts can be made starting Thursday to escape Mr. E’s haunted house, jewel heist, prison and school room, says Gilchrist.

“We’ve even made the haunted house just a little bit scarier than it was before, so we’ll see how that goes over with the kiddos,” he said with a laugh. “I’m really excited for all of our rooms. Everyone loves a mystery. And we work really hard to make them enjoyable for people.”

SixOneSix Entertainment is also ready to open its doors Thursday in downtown Medicine Hat after being open for less than four months throughout the pandemic. Owner Ken Forbes says his company is a lot like a restaurant, except he can’t offer patio service to generate revenue.

Hatters can try their hand in axe throwing, virtual reality and a brand new soccer pool table game, which is popular in Europe, says Forbes. He says it’s a 24×12 table where people use their feet to kick soccer balls, which are painted as pool balls.

“It’s very nice now that we know July 1 all restrictions are off so we can now open our place fully to everyone,” Forbes said. “It being a large location downtown, almost 12,000 square feet, it would be nice to get people to come in and do things, especially to get away from the heat wave.

“We’re indoors, we have air conditioning and it gives people something to do.”

Forbes says SixOneSix Entertainment will continue to be cleaned as it was during the pandemic, and says he understands some folks are eager for normalcy while others are cautious.

“We’ve always kept our standard high for cleaning, COVID didn’t really change what we did. I believe when you walk into a place and it feels clean then you feel comfortable right off the start,” he said.

SixOneSix Entertainment is kicking off its operations on Thursday at the Canada Day events at the Stampede grounds, where Forbes will have axe throwing set up for $5 for kids and $10 for adults with a chance to win gift cards to his business. A portion of the proceeds will go to HALO air ambulance.

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