Back before I was a real live editor of a real live newspaper, I was a real live editor of a student newspaper (how real those are is a matter of some debate.)
As editor (well, coordinator; it was more of a collective, where we took turns acting as an executive officer for the week…), I wasn’t really paid, but, living down in Vancouver, I was able to get media passes to go see movies and concerts.
Every once in a while, I was able to arrange for an interview with a famous personality: Michael Moore (yes, that Michael Moore), author Jack Whyte (my favourite moment was when I got a copy of his new book and my interview with him was included in the media clippings file) and the guys from the band Pond.
One of my biggest disappointments, though, was never being able to line up an interview with Les Claypool of Primus.
At the time, Primus was one of my favourite bands, and they came through Vancouver fairly regularly. Every time they came, I would contact their publicist about setting up an interview. Every time, the interview would be scheduled, but scrubbed before I was able to actually talk to him.
One time, I waited outside the venue for three hours, having missed the email saying the interview was canceled, and eagerly showed up with recorder in one hand and CD in the other (“To be signed. You know, if it wouldn’t be too big of a bother…”).
After the third or fourth time of this happening, I started to take it personally.
What, I thought, does Les Claypool have against me?
I’m starting to think the same thing about Kit “You know nothing Jon Snow” Harrington.
Harrington is best known for his role on Game of Thrones, but about the time he signed on for that role, he also signed on for the movie the Seventh Son.
You see what I’m saying? No?
Okay. So back in 2012, I was asked to go scout Kinuseo Falls for a potential movie that was looking for a waterfall to shoot at.
While scouting sounds dramatic, it basically involves going to a place and taking really boring pictures of things from every conceivable angle. No movie stars, no movie crew. Just me and a whole bunch of mosquitoes out at one of my favourite places in the world.
What I didn’t know what that movie was going to be the Seventh Son. I was hoping to get to hobnob with the rich and famous.
My dream was to interview Julianne Moore, who was starring in the movie as the lead bad guy. Girl. Woman. Person. The main baddie.
I might have had a thing for Moore, ever since seeing (nearly all of) her in Robert Altman’s Short Cuts, but I knew I could (probably) control my inner fanboy long enough to interview her.
But she didn’t come to town.
Okay, how about Kit Harrington, who had recently shot to stardom as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones?
But he too, didn’t come to town. Instead, we got Ben Barnes. While Barnes had recently hit it big as Prince Caspian in a pair of movies based on CS Lewis’ beloved Narnia novels, I was unable to line up an interview with him or co-star Antje Traue (whose breakout role as Faora-Ul in Man of Steel was still a few year’s off), the only two of the stars to come to Tumbler Ridge.
Now, we have the Ice Throne located in Tumbler Ridge from Game of Thrones, and once again, Kit Harrington has spurned us.
Of course, nobody from the show came to Tumbler Ridge. Even the camera guy who was shooting for HBO was a stringer from Calgary.
And I know that wasn’t the point. Still, wouldn’t it have been cool to be in line to get your photo taken with the throne with tall dark and sexy northman on one side, the rugged, windburned northman on the other, and then, from the bushes walks freaking Jon Snow to say hi.
Ah, it is to dream.
Still, even without Harrington’s star power and curly locks to draw people, the throne was the biggest single tourism event in Tumbler Ridge’s history.
While Grizfest has brought upwards of a thousand people a weekend, and the Emperor’s Challenge has brought nearly a thousand people for a one day event, there were at least a thousand people coming through town a day for the last few days of the throne’s stay in town.
On Saturday, the Peace River Paleontology Research Centre had 167 people sign the guest book, the single busiest day for the museum.
According to the Visitor Information Centre, 850 people came to the VIC from Wednesday to Sunday, 348 people on Saturday alone. That’s a lot of people. To put that in perspective, in 2018, there were 234 people who came to the VIC in March, and 784 in the whole first quarter.
The only drawback is this appears to have caught the town flat-footed. While there were some people able to capitalize on the crowds (the soon-to-be late Action Play Cafe brought pizza down to feed to the masses), it seems there could have been more to do.
I’m guilty of not capitalizing on this, too. Because putting out a bi-weekly, eight page paper doesn’t pay the bills (yet; but you can help by going to www.tumblerridgelines.com/support), I am also working part-time as the Chamber Manager.
When I got home from spring break, (on Saturday, the day before the throne left, I thought “hey, we should have done a Tumbler Ridge specific event. “Visit six of these businesses and get a stamp and your name is entered in a draw to win a prize.”) Or something to encourage people to stay, to come back. To explore.
Talking to Jenna at the Visitor Centre, it’s not something you can really do when there’s a line-up out the door of people waiting to talk to you.
I’m not saying that we didn’t do great. We did awesome. But the next time, we can do even better. We need a plan to take advantage of when the world turns its gaze our direction again.
I know. The chance of this happening again is astronomically small, but this is Tumbler Ridge, and things like this seem to happen far more often than not here.
