Friends sitting outside together eating and drinking. (ISTOCK)
WINNIPEG — For a second year, the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ is throwing Patio Fest to celebrate summer.
The weekend-long event, which kicked off Friday, features live music and specials at more than 20 downtown patios until Sunday.
The event was created last summer to entice more people to visit downtown establishments during the pandemic.
“As we see more employees returning to their offices downtown, we’re welcoming them back with their old and new favourite free activities,” said Pamela Hardman with the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ.
“Events returning to downtown is key to helping the neighbourhood recover, and we hope that they contribute to making the downtown office more enjoyable than the home office.”
Along with Patio Fest, the BIZ has planned a series of events running all through July and August, such as Fitness in the Park, the Downtown Winnipeg Farmers’ Market and live concerts.
According to recent data collected by the BIZ, downtown visitation is trending upwards but is still down more than 34 percent compared to 2019.
“We expect the increase of events over the summer, which contribute to the vibrancy in our neighbourhood will continue to help boost visitation, but we still have a long way to go for downtown to recover,” added Hardman.
