Our History

How it all Began

In 2005, Uptowne Olds was formed as a committee under the Olds Institute for Community & Regional Development. The objective of Uptowne Olds was to promote the downtown core (Uptowne) as the preferred place to live, work and shop. Along with this objective both Uptowne Olds and OICRD promoted economic development through sound stewardship of the culture, heritage and historic fabric found in the community.

Partnering with the Town of Olds, OI and Uptowne Olds leveraged the Alberta Main Street program until its dissolution in 2015, accessing grants to designate historical buildings, create an Area Structure Plan, and initiate cultural and community events to attract people to the heart of Olds.

In 2009 Uptowne Olds began Summer Oldstice, a mid-June shopping, entertainment and street market that drew thousands of people to the community. Halloween Howl and Midnight Madness became autumn staple events in the community to attract residents of Olds & area into the core.

In 2020 – Town of Olds withdrew funding from Olds Institute. With no ‘base of operations’,  Uptowne Olds moved ahead to create its own independent society in 2021 in order to grow into its future vision: to become an activated, vibrant, diverse, creative place for tourists, visitors and residents to enjoy our own brand of “Uptowne Funk”.   Honoring the local history, culture and heritage, spotlighting our creative culture, marketing and growing our business community, and hosting fun and engaging events for the whole family remained primary focuses of the organziation.

The Great Pivot of 2020

In addition to finding ourselves “homeless”, the health crisis of 2020 had a global impact on small businesses such as ours. With forced government lockdowns in the spring, several business owners chose to move on to retirement or opportunities away from their independent businesses. Uptowne members, however, found a way to pivot their approach to doing business in a nimble and agile fashion.

The Uptowne team ramped up their social media activity, growing their online following by upwards of 80% to 160%. Our key events were adjusted to avoid crowds, spreading out two major one-day events into 10- and 12-day events. Many businesses reported experiencing the same or even better sales than their 2019 numbers as a result of these efforts! And several new businesses came into the core in the last half of the year, which provided a sense of stability in such uncertain times.