Get involved with Evergreen Festival
Are you interested in getting your business involved with Halifax’s second annual Evergreen Festival?
Click the links below to learn more about how your business can get involved.
ABOUT EVERGREEN FESTIVAL
WHAT?
Evergreen Festival is a 4-week-long outdoor winter showcase of Nova Scotian culture, food, spirits, craft, art and memorable experiences to celebrate and embrace the essence of the season.
Retailers, restaurants, hotels, attractions, public spaces throughout the Halifax region will bring to life illuminations, programming, and animations that create a festive feeling of celebration!
WHEN?
November 26 – December 19, 2021
WHERE?
Halifax Waterfront & Downtown Halifax
The Festival is made up of curated, walkable, and safe outdoor experiences dispersed along the Halifax waterfront, Downtown Halifax, and parts of Spring Garden Road.
Curated by Develop Nova Scotia, in partnership with Discover Halifax, Evergreen Festival invites locals and visitors alike to bundle up, get outside and enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the festive season in Downtown Halifax and beyond.
LONG TERM VISION
To become the signature regional attraction of the holiday season, driving a long-term extension of the tourism season.
FESTIVAL ELEMENTS
The 4-week long festival will be made up of a variety of experiential, event-based, and exploration-driven activities including:
EVERGREEN VILLAGE
Location: Halifax Waterfront
EVERGREEN STAGE
A curated collection of events will be held at a central stage on the Halifax waterfront throughout the festival.
EVERGREEN MARKET
Within the Evergreen Festival there will be an outdoor Evergreen Market located on the Halifax waterfront. Consisting of a collection of temporary wooden ‘chalets’, the Evergreen Market will welcome vendors from across Nova Scotia to the Festival.
Learn more about Develop Nova Scotia’s Evergreen Market Vending Opportunities for businesses, organizations, makers, producers, and creators by visiting their website. Learn more here.
EVERGREEN BRIGHT
Location: Across the Halifax Waterfront and throughout downtown Halifax & Spring Garden Road
ABOUT EVERGREEN BRIGHT
Key locations throughout the city will be illuminated with holiday light installations to create a walkable outdoor trail-like experience through the downtown core.
Evergreen Bright will include: A walkable outdoor trail of twinkling holiday light installations, experiences, and storefront displays along the waterfront and throughout downtown Halifax.
Festival-goers are encouraged to explore the sparkling streets of downtown Halifax under the glow of thousands of lights.
Walk the trail from the Halifax Public Gardens to Peace and Friendship Park, along Argyle Street to Grand Parade, and across the Halifax Waterfront, from Historic Properties to the Halifax Seaport.
EVERGREEN SOUPS & SIPS AND GETAWAYS
EVERGREEN SOUPS & SIPS
Location: Participating restaurants throughout the Halifax Region
Enjoy specialty soups and festive drinks to-go from participating food & drinks establishment as you explore the festival!
EVERGREEN GETAWAYS
Location: Participating hotels in the Halifax Region
Festive hotel packages that encourage locals and visitors to stay for a single night or an entire weekend of the Festival!
Make it a holiday weekend with Evergreen Getaways. Hotels are encouraged to create packages that make it easy for locals and visitors to stay for a single night or an entire weekend of the Festival!
EVERGREEN EVENTS
Interested in submitting an event for the Evergreen Festival? Click the button below to find out how!
For information about Evergreen Stage programming, curated by Jazz East Rising Association, contact programming@halifaxjazzfestival.ca
For any other inquiries about how to get involved with the Festival, please email Jenna Rideout at Develop Nova Scotia to find out how you can get involved.
MORE EVENTS & PROGRAMMING
Programming and activations that will occur during the duration of the Festival to help increase attendance, including the annual Shopping Under the Stars events and more!
WHY PARTICIPATE?
– Encourage safe movement along the Waterfront and downtown core.
– Join your community in supporting and celebrating our local economy, culture, and one another.
– Increase visibility for your business during the holiday shopping season.
– Incremental sales for existing and pop-up businesses and operators.
– Your support helps build a case to make this an annual event.
– Be a part of making the city feel alive!
MARKETING SUPPORT
PAID MARKETING CAMPAIGN
Approximately $100K in media advertising within the HRM and throughout Atlantic Canada.
PR PLAN
Press release, interviews, news channel partnerships and more!
MARKETING COLLATERAL
To help your business show off its participation.
FESTIVAL WEBSITE
evergreenfestns.com
DEDICATED SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
To ensure a central location for all Festival-related news and updates:
Instagram: @evergreenfestns
Facebook: @evergreenfestns
Twitter: @evergreenfestns
PARTNER SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Coordinated efforts across organizations to amplify the festival:
– Develop Nova Scotia
– Discover Halifax
– Downtown Business Commission
– Spring Garden Area Business Association
– And more!
CONTENT CAPTURE
Event photography, video b-roll, etc.!
View and download content captured for Evergreen Festival 2020
GET INVOLVED
Sign up is EASY and participation is FREE!
How to participate: RESTAURANTS
EVERGREEN SOUPS & SIPS
Create a winter-themed soup or beverage special that will be available for the duration of the Festival.
Any restaurant within the Halifax region is eligible to participate.
Participation Requirements:
– Create a festival-inspired soup and/or beverage offer*
– Give your offer a memorable name!
– Decide if you will offer it to-go and/or on your patio and/or for dine-in**
– Upload a photo for the website/social media
*Alcoholic beverage specials are not permitted to be offered to-go.
**Program will be promoted as soups & sips to-go to encourage movement around the festival, but you can opt to offer a dine-in option as well.
Tips for Soups & Sips:
Get creative with your offer
Here are a few ideas:
– EverGREEN Goddess Soup: Broccoli, Kale, and all the greens!
– Ice Rink: A Bowl of frozen vanilla cream soup, AKA ice cream!
– Holiday Spice & Everything Nice: Mulled Wine
– Double the Fun: Two for one Spicy Hot Chocolate
Take maximum advantage of the marketing tools
– Put up Evergreen Collateral in your windows so folks walking by know you’re participating
– Share social media graphics and tag @evergreenfestns online for more visibility
– Provide a high quality photo of your special
Make your business FEEL like it’s part of the Festival
– Decorate with plenty of LIGHTS!
– Create warmth (literally and figurately!)
– Decorate your patio (if you have one)
– Play festive music
How to participate: HOTELS
EVERGREEN GETAWAYS
Festive hotel packages to create an unforgettable holiday experience. Design a hotel package for the festival by getting creative and finding unique ways to partner with local businesses!
Participation Requirements
Create a festive hotel package to be offered throughout the Festival*
Here are a few ideas:
– Work with your onsite restaurant
– Partner with a restaurant or provide a gift card
– Offer a gift with stay (festive local package)
*OFFER CRITERIA:
Offer must be redeemable for the entire duration of the event (Nov 26 – Dec 19, 2021)
Offers must provide a direct booking link
Tips for creating great Getaways:
Get creative with your offer
– Partner with nearby local businesses
– Give your package a memorable name
– Tie it to a Festival event
How to participate: EVENTS
EVERGREEN EVENTS
Unique events and programming are a part of the Evergreen Festival experience.
Whether you are a business, partner, attraction or local organization – let us know about your festive activities so we can feature them on the Evergreen Events page!
Participation requirements for Events
– Events must include a time/date and location
– Can be a recurring or one-time event
– You can submit multiple events using the registration form
– Restaurants and hotels participating in the Soups & Sips and Getaways programs can also submit an event or activation
– Pre-planned festive and holiday events occurring within the Downtown core or outside the Downtown core also apply!
– We recommend submitting an image along with your event info
Event thought starters:
– Offer hot chocolate on Fridays
– Visit from Santa Claus
– Christmas Tree lighting ceremony
– Live holiday tunes under the stars
– Tax-free sale event
Participating Business FAQ
The primary opportunity for small businesses without existing premises is to apply for a space in one of the temporary chalets within the Evergreen Market.
However, another excellent opportunity is to partner with a business that has premises to deliver a pop-up experience. Imagine a craft pop-up at a hotel or a local beauty business at a spa. There are many opportunities to work together to create some magic.
If you are a business interested in participating but are unsure of where to start, reach out to us and we can help match you with potential partners!
The Festival will strategically leverage the Downtown core as the draw, however, the idea is to entice people here and then sell them on experiencing everything (and every place!) the holiday season has to offer in the Halifax Region.
All areas of Halifax can and should participate. We recommend creating an event that can be featured within the upcoming website events calendar. For food & beverage establishments, we recommend registering for the Soups & Sips program. Or, if you have another idea for getting involved, let us know!
Yes, absolutely! All businesses are encouraged to decorate and put up lights! Please email jenna.rideout@developns.ca with the subject line “Evergreen Activation” if you have any questions.
Curated by Jazz East Rising Association, the Evergreen Stage will be a showcase of live and streamed multidisciplinary programming during the Evergreen Festival. For more information contact programming@halifaxjazzfestival.ca
Festival runs rain or shine, but events or activations affected by the weather will be rescheduled or cancelled on a case-by-case basis. We will use the Festival website and/or social media channels to communicate changes with the public.
Unlike many festivals which are confined to a specific space, Evergreen Festival is intentionally dispersed throughout Downtown Halifax in order to keep crowds to a minimum and make it easier to maintain social distancing while experiencing the event. The Festival will also occur over the course of four weeks, helping to further reduce the concentration of gathering.
In addition, there are precautions being observed throughout the various aspects of the festival including, but not limited to:
– Individual Businesses will continue to follow the Province’s existing health & safety guidelines
– At the Market, there will be physical distancing markers and appropriate space between kiosks to prevent crowding in lines
– At the Stage, there will be pods suitable for groups of up to ten and monitored to disperse crowds
Only the market will follow specific open and closed hours. While the light installations will be most active in the evening and act as a strong draw, there are no restrictions as to when a business may activate its own programming.
We will be featuring participating businesses and events from outside the Downtown core on our website. We’d also encourage businesses to engage with the @evergreenfestns accounts on social media. As much as possible, we will be reposting, retweeting, and resharing information about participating businesses. Our marketing plan is still in development so stay tuned for more details!
The vision for the Festival was to be as inclusive as possible and to celebrate as many cultures and beliefs as possible. We encourage any interested local group or event to reach out to discuss how we can get you involved.
There will always be room on the event calendar to feature any local events throughout the downtown core and beyond.
Wherever we can, we will try to help bring parties together to find collaborations and shared spaces to activate. There is no shortage of ways to be involved.
The main marketing priorities for the Festival are to build public awareness of the event and to support local businesses – which includes integrating our amazing local media within the plan. Our marketing plan is still in development so stay tuned for more details!
The Festival will not be licensing the Festival Stage area itself, it will be embracing the businesses surrounding the Festival Stage area and their operations.
The Festival Stage program of performances will be streamed for free to anyone who wishes to watch it. This means the performances can be enjoyed at home or broadcast live at your businesses. This gives you an opportunity to bring the entertainment to your space and even turn it into an elevated experience for your customer that can then be listed in the Festival’s event calendar. Dinner for two & a warm seat for watching the stage performance, perhaps?
RESTAURANT QUESTIONS: FAQs for participating restaurants
No. We will be promoting the event largely to encourage outdoor exploration of the experiences, but restaurants are welcome to offer their special for dine-in consumption. When you register, you will be asked to indicate if your offer is available for dine-in, take-out, and/or patio consumption. You can choose as many as apply.
No, alcoholic beverages can only be consumed on-site and are not permitted to be transported off-site during the festival.
This is dictated by the city’s by-laws. If you are in an area zoned for permanent patios, your patios can stay open. If you are in an area zoned for temporary patios, you will have to follow the guidelines set by the Municipality.
The offer must be redeemable for the entire duration of the festival (without black-out dates): November 26 – December 19, 2021.
You are permitted to submit more than one offer! You can include as many offers as you like in your online registration.
Absolutely, you are permitted to submit more than one offer, and each offer can be for a different category.
Your offer does not have to be unique to the festival, but must fit with the spirit of the festival and be available for the full four weeks.
We recommend using whatever you currently use for your to-go business. If you do not currently have to-go packaging and wish to participate, we recommend to-go coffee cups for both soups and hot drinks. Environmentally friendly packaging is highly recommended.
No, as per current COVID restrictions, customers cannot use their own mugs.
HOTEL QUESTIONS: FAQs for participating hotels & accommodations
No, your package does not need to be unique to the Festival, however, we encourage you to embrace the spirit of the Evergreen Festival when creating your package.
It will be listed within a “Getaway” section on the Evergreen Festival website.
You can offer a special rate if you prefer. However, there will be more marketing support dedicated to promoting packages that align with the spirit of the Festival.
We encourage businesses to work together to find unique connections and build special experiences. Of course, if you are having challenges, please reach out and we can help facilitate connections.
A great place to start is to begin thinking outside your own walls and even your own industry. If you’re trying to create a hotel package, know that a dining component is not a requirement – maybe instead you explore a tasting, a walking tour, or other different types of experiences.
Any activity, journey, adventure, experience, or thing to do can help create a package.
Perhaps instead of dinner and a stay, you can pair the stay with:
– A half-day activities package
– TWO other components rather than one (dinner, spa, stay)
– A culinary walking tour
– A crafting activity and special hot chocolate
– A musical performance and meal
The possibilities are endless!
RETAIL QUESTIONS: FAQs for participating shops & retailers
On Saturdays and Sundays, the Festival will have programming during the day, giving you an opportunity to join in the festivities during your operating hours. Alternatively, you can offer extended hours throughout the course of the Festival. Let us and the public know you are open by using the hashtag #OpenforEvergreen on social media.
Packaged foods or those that have been cooked/prepared on licensed premises can be served, such as hot chocolate, coffee, tea and/or cookies, sweets, and chocolates.
However, without an appropriate food license, a retailer cannot prepare and serve food on site. If you are unsure, please reach out to kconnely@discoverhalifaxns.com to confirm whether your offer meets food safety regulations.
Yes! You can offer extended hours during the course of the Festival. Let us and the public know that you are open by using the hashtag #OpenforEvergreen on social media.
OR, if you’ve got a big idea, you can contact Jenna at Develop NS to discuss programming and/or light installation.
This Festival is meant to attract and draw locals and visitors alike outside to shop, explore and mingle – safely. It is expected that increased foot traffic, motivated by Evergreen, will result in an opportunity to increase traffic to retailers, especially those who are intentionally making a connection and embracing the essence of the outdoor festival. We believe the draw of this event will also create benefits for retailers throughout the whole festival.
These weather-tight wooden structure Chalets are 2.87m x 2.24m (see License Agreement for specifications) and equipped with basic power. Develop Nova Scotia will supply each vendor with a 2×2 sign that includes a logo and business name. Vendors can add their own shelving and product display and are encouraged to add accents, illumination and more to the interior of the chalets to reflect their brand and offering.
Chalets are equipped with basic power only. They do not have water or sewage services and are not equipped for food service. Any vendors wishing to serve food will be required to adhere to current health and food service guidelines.