It was a busy year for Prince George’s CN Centre who welcomed in a variety of acts in 2019.
This past year saw a number of Broadway shows as Stomp and Kinky Boots come to the northern capital along with major concerts like Rascall Flats, Judas Priest, and Colin James.
Manager Glen Mikkelsen admits it’s getting even tougher to book top-notch musical artists due to a hot international market.
“Partly that’s due to the number of international venues created as acts like Shawn Mendes and Billie Eilish who we would certainly like to see in Prince George, they are able to tour around the world, which makes it more difficult to get them here in Northern BC.”
However, the first six months of 2020 are jammed-packed with events like Cirque de Soleil’s Axel and the World Women’s Curling Championship.
Mikkelsen believes the curling championship can help lead the charge.
“During the 2018 World Women’s Curling Championship in North Bay, Ontario, they did a post-event review where over 86-million people watched the event from around the globe. Curling, especially women’s curling is seeing remarkable growth and we anticipate that even higher viewership will be checking in to see what’s going here in Prince George over the course of three months, so it’s a really good opportunity for us.”
The CN Centre will be celebrating its 25th anniversary next year, a number that often catches promoters off-guard when trying to book their act into the arena.
“They’re usually quite surprised when we tell them that the building is 25 years old. We’re fortunate to have a great staff that take great pride in the facility and they do a phenomenal job maintaining it. It certainly hides its age based on how well people have looked after it.”
Mikkelsen adds they try and incorporate newer acts into the building in an attempt to get more people from across Northern BC to Prince George.
The facility is also home to the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League.