Twenty-five years ago a group of people sat around a table discussing how to get more visitors to come to Jasper.
It was Marmot Basin’s 25th anniversary, and as Marmot’s vice-president of marketing, Brian Rode, put it, “we thought we had better do something about [it]; some sort of celebration.”
So Rode and others from the community formed a plan: a nine-day festival designed to get as many people to Jasper and the ski hill as possible.
Businesses decorated their storefronts, hotels in town offered discounts, Marmot gave out nine-day ski passes for $10.25, and a host of events were planned in the town itself.
“In the beginning it really was all about getting people to Marmot,” said Amanda Stevens, Tourism Jasper’s business development coordinator.
And it worked: during the festival, the number of visits to the hill jumped from an average of about 5,000 to more than 21,000.
The organizers recognized the event’s success, and quickly realized they needed to do it again the following year. Gathered around the table once again they brainstormed a name.
Rode remembered a chorus of groans greeting the first suggestion of “the Jasper in January festival.” Before long, however, the group realized the name accomplished exactly what it was supposed to, succinctly describing exactly what the festival was, and it stuck.
Since then, the event has grown from a week-long promotional event to a two-week bonanza that sweeps through town each January.
As the festival evolved, different events were added and dropped. Long-time Jasper residents may remember the mountain-to-valley race, which saw teams compete in a multi-stage relay that started on skis at the top of the hill and encompassed cars, bikes and cross-country running. At various times, the festival also boasted a night-time parade and a big dinner at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.
Each year saw more events added, and as the festival grew the community got even more involved. Eventually, Jasper in January became an integral part of living in Jasper.
As Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce General Manager Pattie Pavlov said, Jasper in January is “part of who we are as a community; it’s part of the very fabric. I can’t even imagine there not being a Jasper in January.”
Pavlov, who has lived in town nearly as long as the festival has existed, became involved through the Jasper Heritage Rodeo. She remembered the festival in the 90s, cruising through town in a fire truck with the rodeo queens, and Jasper the Bear, getting people excited for the festival’s kickoff.
“We would go to wherever there were bars, banging pots and just being generally goofy,” she explained.
One kickoff was brutally cold, and Pavlov remembered Jasper the Bear, exhausted from a night of tomfoolery, was too cold and tired to climb into the fire truck.
“At one point, someone picked up the back end of Jasper the Bear, and picked him up and fired him into the fire truck—head first,” she said, laughing. “Like, head first: there he goes.
“Jasper’s had some pretty wild J in Js,” she added.
That kind of festive atmosphere is a welcome relief in the grips of a frigid January, and while bitter cold keeps many inside during the winter, Jasper in January provides an excuse to get outside and enjoy the park.
“Part of the whole J in J vibe is getting people out to enjoy the winter. We’re in it, we might as well enjoy it,” Pavlov said.
Rode said this is part of the reason the festival became so popular: Jasper in January reminded people that Jasper wasn’t just a place to ski, but somewhere they could go snowshoeing, or on a sleigh ride, or skate on a frozen lake.
“What happened was we used the festival to reintroduce these things to people,” he said. “People were almost reawakened to Jasper.”
Even though it’s been going on for 25 years, Jasper in January continues to evolve, and new traditions continue to spring up. The ATCO Street Party and the fireworks show both began in the last few years, and are quickly becoming festival favourites, alongside classic events like the Chili Cook-Off and Hops and Scotch.
Rode said he could never have imagined how successful Jasper in January would be when he and the others first planned it, and points to the strength of the community as the driving force behind that success.
“We’re still chugging along; I can’t believe that 25 years have passed,” he said.
Trevor Nichols
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