Sustainival: Edmonton’s environmentally conscious carnival

Fuelled entirely by green, renewable energy, Sustainival is a carnival for all ages with environmental education components.

By Shaela Dansereau

From rides to mini donuts, Sustainival is ready to show Edmontonians of all ages a fun time with a twist. This carnival is completely powered by biodiesel a green, renewable energy resource.

The biodiesel powering the carnival is a combination of canola, which has been converted to biodiesel and filtered, and used deep fryer oil.

The carnivals four-day run will only use a total of 4000 litres of biodiesel. The use of this resource has saved over 10,000 litres of regular diesel from being burned every year.

Sustainival Edmonton is being hosted in the north end of the Kingsway Mall parking lot. With everything from small to large rides, food vendors and games tents, Sustainival offers plenty of activities for all Edmontonians.

The environmental conservation component of the carnival only adds to the fun. Educational signs about what we can do to help conserve energy are posted around the carnival, and reading them can even help you win prizes.

The Green Beast Eco Challenge is an Amazing-Race-like scavenger hunt that has you solve the puzzles and trivia about environmental conservation and green energy to get a chance to spin the prize wheel.

According to Sustainival Alberta executive director Odette Hutchings, two new rides have been added to Sustainival this year, and she’s certain that they will quickly become fan favorites like the Zipper.

Frenzy is a giant pendulum thrill ride that is available for the first time in Canada at this carnival. Previously you would only have been able to ride it in Europe. Cliff Hanger is the second new ride, and just like it sounds, simulates a cliff hanging experience.

If rides don’t pull your attention, then the wide variety of carnival food might. Cortis Snyder runs the Deep Fried Steve-Os truck, home of the Kit Kat fries. Snyder says that switching to biodiesel to be in Sustainival has not impacted the way he has to run his truck at all.

Snyder shows off the truck’s signature deep fried kit kat fries

Infact, Snyder supports the choice to run the festival on renewable energy and hopes that other major carnivals such as K-Days can also make the switch to biodiesel.

Snyder says, “If one could use biofuel in every vehicle, I would go for it.”

Sustainival runs from Thursday, June 6 through Sunday, June 9.