Charlottetown Christmas Festival kicks off with COVID-19 safety top of mind

The trees are up,the Whos have made their home by Victoria Row, and the Charlottetown Christmas Festival is nearly underway.

The festival starts Friday and runs until Dec. 13. Events are running throughout the city, from the Whoville that is set up at the Confederation Centre, to concerts, craft fairs and the annual Victorian Christmas market. Events will be held inside and outside.

"We have hundreds of little events," said Heidi Zinn, executive director of Discover Charlottetown.

The organization has been in constant contact with the Chief Public Health Office to make sure that everything is done safely.For the events hosted at places like bars and restaurants, they will be following their own operational plans, said Zinn.

But organizershad to make a lot of changes just to be able to hold the festival.

"Some of the stuff had to be cut out. There was no way around it," she said.

"We realized things like the petting zoo at the Victorian Christmas market,we had to give that up this year.Anything that encouraged a crowd to gather we had to kind of rethink it, let it go, retire it until 2021."

Most of the events have been designed to keep people moving throughout the city.

"We've really tried to avoid having anything that will bring people together around a central area," said Zinn.

And while trying to figure everything out has been complicated at times, Zinnsaidit was important for Discover Charlottetown to hold an event like this in order to support businesses that have worked hard to reopen safely.

"We really felt that our merchants, our restaurants, our hotels people need a morale boost, people need something to look forward to," she said.

For those retailers, they're hoping thefestival brings lots of people into their shops.

'Really counting on Christmas'

December is one of the busiest months for Kuriosities, a jewelry shop on Victoria Row, and the annual Victorian Christmas market usually provides a big boost for the store, said owner Kimberly McIntyre.

"This year it's a little more important for us because we missed our tourist season, which usually gets us through to the next tourist season. But we're really counting on Christmas this year," she said.

And while she hopes the festival draws people into downtown Charlottetown, she said COVID-19 hasn't left the back of her mind.

"We're going to be meeting and discussing this week, like what kind of protocols we have in place for managing crowds of people, whether it's lineups outside and how many people in the store and whatnot," she said.

"It's a balance of being really excited to be able to have people in here again and to see all of our regular customers and have those conversations and feel the Christmas, you know, excitement. But we're balancing that with being safe as well."

Keeping an eye on neighbouring provinces

McIntyre is watching the situation in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia closely, and said while the event might attract people to come from out of province, she's confident in P.E.I.'s public health measures.

If it is only Islanders that can come and appreciate the market and all the amazing events that are going on, then we hope that they come out. Heidi Zinn, Discover Charlottetown

"I really do have a lot of faith in our public health. They've steered us so right, we're the safest place, like in the country right now. And I don't think that they would be allowing people to come here if they thought it was a significant risk," she said.

Zinn is also watching the situation in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

"There are a number of people that are coming to our Island for this event that have booked, you know, stays in our hotels," she said.

Zinn said Discover Charlottetown staff members will keep an eye on how the festival is going, making sure people keep their distance and operational plans are working well.

"If it is only Islanders that can come and appreciate the market and all the amazing events that are going on, then we hope that they come out and support it, maybe even have a sleepover in the hotels," she said.

More from CBC P.E.I.