It was all candied flossed teeth and smiles as Calgary 2012 Cultural Capital of celebrated its colorful wrap up of an extraordinary year of free grant initiatives, volunteers, performers, musicians and visual artists.

They rallied and revelled well into the evening with complimentary entertainment, magic, music, candies, popcorns, 3 best things about Calgary suggestion boards, tee shirts, photo station and souvenir party favored suitcase boxes. The achievements in showcasing Calgary’s mosaic diversity in the arts and were more than spectacular! A Global Television documentary about the making-of  “SWEET CITY WOMAN LIP DUB VIDEO”  by the classic rock  CALGARY STAMPEDERS BAND  was exhibited for several times . Press+1 Magazine was invited to join the festive gathering on Monday, March 3 at the BMO Center in Stampede Park. Life’s been fun!

Along with the  NIAGAGRA REGION IN SOUTHERN ONTARIO,  Calgary was co-designated by Stephen Harper’s PC Government as the arts and cultural capitals of 2012. The life changing experience aimed to transform this emerging prairies oil boomtown into an oasis of 360 days and nights of creative activities. The Cultural Capitals of Canada is a program administered through Canadian Heritage. The objective of the program is to stimulate sustained community support of arts and culture. It recognizes and supports Canadian communities that have a record of harnessing the many benefits of arts and culture in community life.

According to the Calgary 2012 official website (http://www.calgary2012.com), it was an independent, non-profit organization “that helped showcase Calgary’s culture and create legacy projects to encourage future cultural achievements.” The goals of the organization were “to raise awareness of the richness of Calgary’s cultural assets, empower cultural celebration and participation in every community in Calgary, to build a stronger sense of identity and have local and national impact. 2012 marks the centennial anniversaries of the CALGARY STAMPEDE, CITY OF CALGARY RECREATION and the CALGARY PUBLIC LIBRARY, as well as the THEATRE JUNCTION’S GRAND THEATRE and the PUMPHOUSE THEATRES. 2012 marked a pivotal year in Calgary’s cultural history including the centennial anniversaries of some of the city’s cultural cornerstones. The Calgary 2012 Cultural Capital of Canada bid was a joint initiative co-chaired by Calgary Arts Development Authority and the Calgary Stampede in partnership with City of Calgary Recreation, the Calgary Public Library, Tourism Calgary and Calgary Economic Development.

Congratulations for a jubilant year of successes, Calgary & Niagra! Here are some photos from last night’s celebration.

Photographed & written by Ben Tsui.