Summer at Budweiser Gardens
With the London Knights and London Lightning done for the season do you ever wonder what’s going on at Budweiser Gardens during the summer? Surely everyone who works there must take the entire summer off, right?! Think again. Preparing for the season takes a lot of preparation and hard work and the summer is the time when all the planning happens for the upcoming months. This is the time when we confirm most of our shows for the fall, winter and spring and all departments are involved with getting a show on sale.
Lots of maintenance happens around the building during the summer months. Cirque du Soleil Corteo wrapped up on June 16th with the next event not until July 22nd the building has lots of time to work on a number of projects. The week of June 17th we had Arbour maintenance and Steam Canada was in for duct and grease trap cleaning. This Friday we will be wrapping up a big project that has been going on for about two weeks – new rink boards! Our resident building painter, aka “Paint”, will come in to freshen up the paint jobs after a busy season. Although she does other touch ups throughout the season the busiest time for her at the building is definitely summer!
If you’ve ever been around Budweiser Gardens in the late spring you may notice a giant pile of snow in our parking lot. The ice is normally removed once the London Knights season is over. This year the season ended in the middle of April but we had to wait until after our performance of Stars on Ice to be able to remove the ice. In preparation for the London Knights pre-season game on Friday, August 30th the process for building the ice will begin on August 16th. The entire process will take just over a week and will be completed by the 24th just in time for the London Knights training camp.
Our annual hiring process for event staff usually takes place in July with just over 40 new staff being hired this summer. Training for our new staff will take place early August to learn all the building policies and procedures and are ready for a busy season starting September.
Festival season is upon us and there is lots happening around the city of London. Although the nice weather drives a lot of fans outside our lineup for the summer has some pretty epic shows! Our summer shows include Def Leppard’s Hits Canada Tour, Michael Buble’s World Tour, Twins of Evil: Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie, and finally Rob Thomas’ Chip Tooth Smile tour.
To help reduce our carbon footprint the Spectra Venue Management staff launched the “Green Commute” program. Employees are encouraged to car pool, walk, bike and bus to work which will grant them an entry in our bi-weekly draw for some great prizes!
We are looking forward to another great season come September! Want to be the first to know when a show is announced? Are you interested in presales and special offers? Become a Bud Insider today! CLICK HERE