WHISTLER OLYMPIC PLAZA OFFICIAL OPENING

SHOWCASES A RANGE OF TALENT AT A SPECTACULAR OUTDOOR PAVILION

August 9, 2011: Whistler, BC - On Saturday, August 27, 2011, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) will officially open Whistler Olympic Plaza, one of the most technically-sophisticated outdoor venues in Canada, showcasing a well-known roster of talented performers. CBC Radio's Jian Ghomeshi will host the evening as entertainers and special guests share stories of Whistler Olympic Plaza. For the first time, the stage, framed by the spectacular Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, will be set in the new pavilion with free concerts by Juno Award-winning Sam Roberts Band and Canadian alt-country star, Kathleen Edwards.

Whistler Olympic Plaza is the site where the best athletes in the world stepped up to the podium at Victory Ceremonies during the 2010 Winter Games and where the Paralympic Closing Ceremony concluded Whistler's role as Host Mountain Resort. "From the early '80s, Whistler visionaries designated this land as community space," says Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed, "and today, Whistler Olympic Plaza is consistent with the community's vision toward sustainability, including: supporting arts and culture, offering a gathering place where locals can meet visitors, building family amenities, expanding diversified tourism facilities, and more."

Whistler Olympic Plaza is the result of an extensive community engagement process to establish a collective vision and guiding principles for development, reflecting the long-standing intention of the resort community to utilize this site as an important place within the social fabric of Whistler. Many of the features listed below were conceived during this community dialogue.

EVENT DETAILS:Whistler Olympic Plaza Official Opening Celebration
Saturday, August 27, 2011
7pm: Pre-show; 8pm to 10:30pm: Official celebration
Whistler Olympic Plaza in Whistler Village 

NOTE: Seating is not available for this event. Dress for the weather. This is an evening event and the temperature drops once the sun goes behind the mountains. Wear long pants and bring a sweater or jacket.

WHISTLER OLYMPIC PLAZA FEATURES:

Created as a lasting legacy, Whistler Olympic Plaza has an audience capacity for up to 6,000 and is a permanent outdoor venue for recreation, community celebrations, arts and culture. It features:

• A great lawn with seating stairs and terraces (3,100 m² or 33,170 sq ft)
• A performance pavilion with covered seating for up to 600
• Complete back of house and dressing room facilities
• Integrated "plug and play" outdoor concert spaces, connected to the Village Stroll
• An inclusive playground, accessible to meet the diverse needs of children
• Public art celebrating and commemorating the 2010 Winter Games
• Tremendous views of the surrounding mountains.

Whistler Olympic Plaza would not have been constructed without the support of several key partnerships with the RMOW, particularly the Government of Canada Department of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages and the British Columbia Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation.

The Department of Canadian Heritage formed the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF) to improve physical conditions for artistic creativity and innovation. Funding was awarded to the RMOW for Whistler Olympic Plaza to support the construction of this extraordinary arts and heritage facility, and the acquisition of specialized equipment.

"The Resort Municipality Initiative continues to help B.C.'s resort-oriented communities like Whistler develop their local tourism economy," Pat Bell, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation said. "This year up to $10.5 million is available for the 14 eligible municipalities to support new or improved tourism-related infrastructure, enhanced amenities and new programs like events and festivals."

PARTNERS:

Capital funding for the construction of the $13.67 million Whistler Olympic Plaza includes $5 million from the Government of Canada, $4.2 million from VANOC, $4.02 million from the Province of British Columbia through the Resort Municipality Initiative, and $450,000 from private and charitable organizations.

Building on the momentum and global awareness garnered during the 2010 Winter Games, the RMOW has the opportunity to keep attracting visitors through a dynamic and diverse program of festivals, events and animation funded through the Province of British Columbia's Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI).

RMI funding from the Province has also made possible several projects related to Whistler Olympic Plaza: performance infrastructure ($400,000); and programming and site enhancements for the festivals, events and animation program ($2.92 million), which the RMOW launched this summer including concerts in the plaza and village animation. A further $240,000 was contributed to operational enhancements for the festivals programming.

ARTIST AND HOST BIOS:

Sam Roberts Band last played in Whistler during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games on the Whistler Live! stage. Thousands packed Village Square for their energetic show and proudly cheered Roberts when he waved the Canadian flag in celebration.

Sam Roberts has racked up impressive stats over his musical career including platinum records, No. 1 chart rankings, multiple Juno Awards and the honour of his debut album in 2001, The Inhuman Condition, becoming one of the bestselling independent releases in Canadian music history. The Montreal-based artist laid out a map for his career with his latest album, Collider, acknowledging that the key to longevity and continued relevance is to never to take the easy route.

Kathleen Edwards played at the site of Whistler Olympic Plaza for a Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games Victory Ceremony. Hailed as one of the finest and most distinctive singer-songwriters to emerge in 2003, Edwards was poised to vault to the front rank of contemporary music, and she did.

The New York Times praised Edwards as a writer whose songs can "pare situations down to a few dozen words while they push country-rock towards its primal impulses of thump and twang". Failer started as an indie project recorded with friends in the Ottawa music scene, but once released was acclaimed as one of the finest debut records in recent memory. No Depression said the album marked "the arrival of a rare talent." Rolling Stone declared her one of year's most promising new acts and Blender said Failer's songs possessed "an indefinable pull that makes you love the characters they describe, no matter how fu*&ed up they are." Edwards toured relentlessly with Failer, collecting an armload of accolades and fans around the world.

Jian Ghomeshi is an award-winning broadcaster, writer, musician and producer and is the host and co-creator of the national daily talk program, Q, on CBC Radio One and Bold TV. Since its inception in 2007, Q has garnered the largest audience of any cultural affairs program in Canada and has become the highest- rated show in its morning time slot in CBC history. Toronto's NOW Magazine named Jian "Best Media Personality" in TV or radio, in the fall of 2009. In September 2010 Jian was awarded the prestigious New York Festival international broadcasting Gold Medal for "Talk Show Interview" of the year for his feature length world-exclusive with Leonard Cohen.

Mixing insight and opinion with unscripted wit, Jian shifts seamlessly from editorial essays to moderating debates on the air. He has interviewed an array of prominent international figures from prime ministers to sports stars and cultural icons. His feature interview subjects on Q have included Woody Allen, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Van Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Barbara Walters, Tom Waits, William Shatner, Jay-Z, Al Gore, and Margaret Atwood.