Commonwealth Stadium has been the epicenter of activity in Edmonton lately — from a historic visit from the Pope to Monster Jam and football games.
Monster Jam made its debut in the city Saturday and by Sunday afternoon it was Elks territory again.
“This is probably an unparalleled week at Commonwealth Stadium,” Jason Fesyk said, stadium major events supervisor for the City of Edmonton.
The venue has been busy.
In the span of a week the stadium hosted football, a Papal mass, then a monster truck show.
“We’ve had a lot of events that have come through Commonwealth Stadium, but none that have really backed up onto one another the way these have,” Fesyk explained.
Read more:
Pope Francis holds open-air public mass at Edmonton football stadium
“The amount of time, effort and work that went into that was absolutely amazing.”
It’s not an easy task setting up and tearing down several big events — quickly — and with a local labour crew of about 45 people who work alongside other teams in the process.
“When you have a good plan in place and great leadership that gives you really good direction you can have a really well-oiled machine with just a small amount of people,” labourer Carol Menaar said.
With the other event crews, about 100 people are working together simultaneously.
“To go in, to go out and prepare their shows and basically get everything moving so that we can welcome people in for these events,” Fesyk said.
Read more:
Elks game will be broadcast in Indigenous language for the first time
Labourer Aaron Baynes said he works with a good crew.
“Most of us have done a bunch of shows together now, so when we do shows together we kind of get used to how to interact and how to work together really well. It’s nice crew,” Baynes said.
