'Doesn't seem right': Skateboarders feel blindsided by temporary closure of city's biggest skatepark
Members of Calgary's skateboard community say they're frustrated by the temporary closure of a main section of Canada's largest outdoor skatepark, in order to prepare for an upcoming music festival.
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Local skaters expressed outrage in an online message board Friday, after the yellow zone of the Cowboys Park skatepark was barricaded for crews to set up for next month's Cowboys Music Festival.
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The yellow zone is the largest section of the 75,000-square-foot skatepark.
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The Cowboys Music Festival, which takes place during the Calgary Stampede, will be held July 3 to 13 at the park just west of the downtown core. The 11-day festival will feature Macklemore, T-Pain, Kim Petras, Timbaland, and other headline acts, drawing an estimated attendance of 100,000.
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A Change.org petition urging festival organizers to reconsider their use of the space and 'free' the skatepark — which many local users still refer to as 'Millz' — had garnered more than 1,800 e-signatures as of Saturday morning.
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'People are upset, understandably,' said skateboarder Evan Podilek, an employee of Ninetimes Skate Shop on 12th Street S.W., just a few kilometres from Cowboys Park.
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'We have a limited stretch of weather to skate outside.'
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Another employee of the shop, Jasper Westbury argued skateboarders weren't consulted ahead of time, only hearing about the closure 'through the grapevine.'
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'I think our big thing is, Stampede gets what Stampede wants,' he said.
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'It would have been sick if the city and Cowboys thought about everybody that is a stakeholder.'
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At the skatepark on Friday afternoon, a small number of skateboarders and BMX riders were limited to using either the blue zone, which is designed for beginners, or the more advanced red zone, which features bowls and ramps catering to users of a high skill level.
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Kincaid Chan said he skates at the park a few times a week and that he signed the e-petition.
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'It doesn't seem right,' he said of the closure. 'From what I've read … apparently they weren't supposed to touch the skatepark. That seems to have been contravened.'
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