Remembering K-Days of old
Festival president set to compile history of event
There was a time when it was normal to race bathtubs down Jasper Avenue: the old Klondike Days.
The races were some of the many memories of the 10 days in July that four-year K-Days president Don Clark is compiling into the history of the gold rush festival called the “Legacy of Klondike Days.”
K-Days, which took on a few different names over the years, has been celebrated since 1879 when the Edmonton Agricultural Society held an event to improve agricultural practices. The festival was named Klondike Days in 1964, which it kept until 1999.
Clark remembers the Klondike Days of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s fondly — it was a time when Edmonton styled itself as though it was the 1890s. Aside from the fairgrounds at Northlands, Jasper Avenue was closed off for a promenade where patrons could browse storefronts in 19th-century style.
“You could pretty well walk into every restaurant or bar and there would be someone on the piano,” he said. Bars were turned into saloons, and some had swinging doors.
“Families would dress in fineries, walk ahead, there would be cotton candy,” he said. “You’d be promenading along and you’d have cotton candy.”
Many of the old Klondike Days events were nods to gold-rush culture. Events included an annual horse-carried mail delivery from Edmonton to Calgary. Those attending the promenade had to dress up in the 19th-century style, with tailcoats and hoopskirts.
Anyone who wasn’t dressed up on the promenade could be thrown into the Klondike Days jail — to get out, one had to be bailed out with Klondike Dollars. The festival tender is now a collector’s item.
The biggest difference in today’s K-Days is the lack of Edmontonians participating, Clark said. The festival’s name was changed from Klondike Days to Capital Ex in 1999, and then to K-Days in 2013.
“There’s not much to attend,” Clark said. “When they changed it from Klondike Days to Capital Ex they concentrated it all on the grounds.”
Clark said he’ll be at the 2018 K-Days to take stock of what the festival is like today. Writing and editing for the project will happen at the end of August.