Stage 2 of the provincial government's "open for summer" plan started June 10 with eased restrictions for businesses ranging from restaurant to retail. Here's how businesses are responding to the newest rules and the promise that all restrictions could be lifted soon:
- West Edmonton Mall is reopening Ed's Bowling, Professor WEM's Adventure Golf, Marine Life, Ice Palace, DRIVE, Alien Outbreak Escape Room, and Dragon's Tale Blacklight Miniature Golf. "We're thrilled, we're ecstatic, we're happy, we're all of the above and so much more to be opening again," Lily Lein, parks and attractions marketing manager at WEM, told CTV Edmonton.
- Movie theatres, along with casinos, cinemas, museums, galleries and libraries, can open at 30% of fire code capacity. "It's been a long six months, so we're super excited to be welcoming our guests back into the theatre," Stuart Passey, general manager of the Cineplex Cinemas in North Edmonton, told CBC Edmonton.
- The Aviary, a 140-person capacity music venue, hasn't hosted live shows for nearly 15 months and is taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to booking performances. "I've already had about 20 emails asking for shows already, and I'm just telling people to just sit tight a little bit till fall," co-owner Philip Muz told CBC Edmonton.
- Edmonton-based entertainment production company Trixstar plans to bring live concerts back by creating a physically distanced venue using the former racetrack of Northlands Park. The space will accommodate 6,000 people at tables for acts like 54-40, I Mother Earth and Jess Moskaluk, president Mike Anderson told CTV Edmonton.