Cn Centre

By Cheryl Jahn

Prince George events

Local events fluctuate

Feb 26, 2026 | 2:50 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George Cougars early, albeit brief, playoff run kept the CN Centre hopping well into spring last year, but as the Director of Civic Operations noted during the recent budget discussions, for a variety of reasons, 2026 may be a bit slower for events, like concerts.

“The entertainment economy is shifting a little bit,” says Andy Beesley, Director of Operations for the City. “And we don’t know whether this is temporary or long term, but for a variety of reasons, it could be the tensions between Canada and the USA. It could be the dollar, it could be inflation, it could be the economy overall. But there’s far less of what we would consider big acts.”

Beesley says it usually gets down to sheer economics.

“When you see what happens behind the scenes and in some cases they’re bringing it could be 100 people with them and 12 tour busses and ten trucks and just the army that comes with these touring acts. The expense is just horrifying for them, and there’s only so much they can charge the customers because they want to make some money off these concerts. And unfortunately, they’re just finding it tougher and tougher to do these days.”

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On the flip side, Prince George has had success when it comes to hosting sport events. Following the success of the Canada Winter Games, Prince George has hosted a string of outdoor events, like the Para Nordic Games and, right around the corner, the Canadian Native Men’s Fastball Championships this summer.

“The big thing with attracting sporting events here, for one, is the facilities. We have amazing soccer fields. Our ball fields. Kin One arena, the CN Centre. Those are amazing,” says Event Coordinator Lindsay Timmermans. “And then the other big thing is the cost to come up here. And the cost of hotels is a lot more affordable than going down to Vancouver.”

Timmermans recently pulled together a 10-year Tourism Strategy to guide the process around sport hosting and building on the good reputation within the sporting community is part of it.

“We work closely with Tourism Prince George, as well as Engage Sport North, and reach out to our local sport organizations to see how we can support them to get events here. And also which organizations have the capacity and interest to host those larger scale events.”

In the meantime, Beesley says the City is still pursuing those bigger acts.

“But what we’re doing now for our public is, instead of necessarily trying to swing for the total home run, we’re looking for other acts because we think that we’re serving the public well by doing maybe some smaller acts.”

He says COVID also impacted all ventures – concerts and sports alike – as people changed their habits around taking in events.