Snowpack Outdoor Experience & Banff Film Festival a nice fit
By Brendan Quinn
The 40th annual Banff Film Festival is making its way to Nelson this month, and local sponsors are gearing up for a hectic three days of fun.
Snowpack Outdoor Experiences, on Baker Street, has been sponsoring the Banff Film Festival — Thursday to Saturday at the Capitol Theatre — for more than 20 years.
With this year’s event being the 40th anniversary, operators Jill Winters and Lori Comishin spoke with The Nelson Daily about why they sponsor the event and why they dig Nelson.
Winters and Comishin purchased Snowpack from Dave and Carol Elliot in 2006, and carried on the tradition of helping to bring the BFF to Nelson.
“With Lori and I it’s been ten years, but the store has been sponsoring the festival for so many years,” Winters said.
“The BFF just had their 40th anniversary and the world tour has been coming to Nelson for almost as long. When we took over it had been coming to Nelson for about 20 years or so.”
We hear the word “sponsor” a lot, but what exactly does that entail?
“It’s actually quite a cost to bring the shows to town, we cover all the costs involved and we do all the advertising and such,” Winters said, and explained that the “Banff Road Warrior” team bring the films and “pretty much run the show” once everything kicks off.
As they say, timing is everything, and Nelson is lucky to be one of the first stops on the tour, with the festival hitting town just as the snow is starting to fall and skiers and snowboarders begin their annual migration to the Kootenays.
“The tour goes year round and the actual Banff Mountain Film Festival happens the last week of October to the first week of November so it’s quite exciting. It hits Nelson in a great time of year when people are getting excited about being in the mountains and the snow,” Winters said.
The festival itself features a wide variety of films, including documentaries, cultural films and of course, adrenaline and action sports films including plenty of skiing, snowboarding and mountain climbing.
As for the ladies at Snowpack, when asked how they are able to sponsor a major event like the BFF and why they continue to see success in such a small town, Winters had the following to say.
“Running the store in Nelson has been excellent, we’ve seen the ups and downs over the last ten years. I like interacting with the public and the locals and with every change of seasons our locals get just as excited as the people visiting the area,” Winters said.
“I think the people in Nelson are really conscious of shopping local. We definitely feel the support from the town.”
“It’s a find your own fun type place, with tons of fun to be found,” she added.
The Banff Mountain Film Festival will be in Nelson from November 26-28 at the Capitol Theatre.
For more information, such as how to buy tickets, head down to Snowpack at 333 Baker Street.
Comments