Ribfest funding gets green light

Ribfest will be returning to Cold Lake, thanks to a grant from city council.

At the June 11 Regular Council Meeting, council voted in favour of giving a $15,000 grant to Connected Media Inc (Lakeland Connect) for hosting the 2024 Cold Lake Ribfest. This money comes from the Community Recreation, Art, Culture, and Heritage Information (CRACH) grant.

“The application was received after the deadline for the CRACH grant, so we had to bring it forward as a special motion,” said Mayor Craig Copeland. “We want to help bring these large kinds of events to our community, so council had a good discussion about how it fit into the grant criteria.”

As the deadline for grant applications is every two months, the next application deadline would fall just as the event is getting started, which doesn’t provide enough time to process funds.

The $15,000 grant covers the anticipated budget for the event, which in 2023 was $14,738. Connected Media’s application states the budget is expected to be about the same, with any excess funding being donated to local charitable or non-profit organizations.

Ribfest will take place July 5-7 at the Cold Lake Energy Centre.

This year’s entertainment lineup

Last year’s event