Slip and Slide goers cool down in Salt Lake City. Slide the City, a waterslide of giant proportions, is coming to Ottawa this summer.Forget about the cold frosty air and sledding down snow covered hills, a giant slip-and-slide could be rolling out through the heart of Ottawa this summer. No winter jackets or toboggans allowed, only warm weather, water tubes and swimsuits.
Organized by the U.S.-based company Slide the City, the 300-metre-long waterslide is part of a travelling event, which is expected to make a splash in more than a dozen Canadian cities on its tour this year.
Though the main attraction of the family friendly event is the vibrant vinyl slide, measuring three football fields in length, the party also features live music and water gun fights.
“It’s a really cool event that a whole city would just be mesmerized by,” says Kevin McHale, events co-ordinator for the Sparks Street BIA.
Even with snow still falling, social media has already been buzzing with excitement. Ottawa residents have taken to Twitter with comments such as, “Who knew Ottawa could be so cool?” and, “If visiting Ottawa has been hovering on your radar, this just might convince you.”
The Ottawa Sun confirmed that the city has received an application for the event; however, no permits have been granted at this time and no street location has been announced.
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised by how easy to work with the Ottawa city events department has been,” says Wyatt Grow, Slide the City’s regional director for Eastern Canada. “We expected, given that it’s the nation’s capital, there’d be more hurdles.”
Slide the city approached the city about bringing the event to the capital early this year. Grow did not say where they have applied to hold the event, but they are aiming for a date in late-July or early-August.
“We are by no means at the finish line yet,” says Grow, but adds, “all the signs we’ve seen thus far from city leadership have been very cooperative.”
Hoping to be a part of the event, McHale says Sparks Street BIA contacted Slide the City about bringing the event to downtown Ottawa, though they didn’t necessarily think it would happen on Sparks Street itself.
“We weren’t sure about how much of a grade on the street they needed,” he says. “We were thinking if it was on Metcalfe or O’Connor that maybe there’s enough of a slope to make it work.”
“There are some hills and areas that would be optimal for the slide but for traffic and security reasons, are unacceptable,” says Grow. “We’re trying to find an area that is centrally located as we can, has the proper slope specifications to make the slide work, and is also somewhere that the city of Ottawa can still function if we close down the road for a day or two.”
Grow says with 30 people, plus fork lifts and trucks, the slide, padding and hose system can be set up in about five hours.
For Ottawa, the event will be capped at 5,000 people and prices for slides will start at $15 for a single slide. Proceeds from the event will be donated to a local charity.
The first Slide the City occurred in July 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company hopes to have around eight slides ready to send around the globe this summer.