If you were coming to the Bow River Flow and expecting the Lilac Fest or the Sun and Salsa Fest you were going to be disappointed. You were not going to be entertained. You couldn’t buy hippie beach clothing or jewellery. You couldn’t satisfy your manipulated hunger with junk food. You couldn’t get wasted in the beer gardens.

The Bow River Flow was a celebration about getting together, about living healthy, about low environmental impact transportation, and showing that you can have fun doing it. It brought festivals back to their roots. The festival was about something that many in Calgary care deeply about. It rose above the commercial crass that has infiltrated almost every one of our thoughts and actions.

Mommy, look at me, I am riding faster than the cars

Parents could bring their children and not have to worry about the constant nagging to get the ice cream cone, the plastic blow up Spiderman, or the Mickey Mouse lollipop. Parents didn’t have that guilty feeling that comes with leaving with an empty wallet.

One of the highlights for me was seeing children electrified with energy dipping their feet in paint and painting the road with their footprints. There were chalk mazes, bean bag throwing, face painting, bocce, and story telling, all for free. People could take a free yoga and Tai Chi class, could get their bike repaired, and could learn more about bike commuting and car pooling.

Unlike most other parades, for the most part you were the entertainment. You dressed up. You decorated your bike. You dressed up your dog. You participated and created your own fun.  

Yes there were limitations. The biggest was that the festival was only a few blocks. Right when you were enjoying riding, skating, and walking on the road, it was over. With the uproar of closing down Memorial Drive, The City restricted the festival to a tiny area. Organizers did their best within these constraints to give a glimpse of the Bow River Flow festival’s great potential.

Hopefully next year it can be expanded in both directions – west to Parkdale and east to Bridgeland. In New York City, streets are shut down from Brooklyn to Central Park on Sunday afternoons in August. In the future it would be great if the Bow River Flow could take you on a bike ride through many different neighbourhoods in Calgary.

The Bow River Flow is part of a worldwide shift to healthier living and living with a larger environmental consciousness. The old Sunday afternoon drives are out of style. Many people’s minds are stuck like traffic though. I couldn’t imagine a worse way to spend your day, stuck in traffic on a warm and sunny summer day. Those stuck in traffic on the way to and from or in an accident in the CrossIron Mills mall parking lot are really missing out.



In style is riding your bike. You can enjoy the sun, the people, the fresh air, and the beautiful scenery. Even though I live a few blocks from the Bow River, I forgot how beautiful it is.

The most smashing success of the Bow River Flow was reigniting the imagination of Calgarians. It was about creating the city and the world you want to live in – a city with clean air and teaming with people on the streets getting exercise and having fun. Many Calgarians want to have more opportunities to do this. The Bow River Flow created this space. It turned the most popular past time of grumbling into doing. It turned apathy into action. It turned consumers into citizens. It created something special, something that meant something.