"Are you serious?" The look on his face was a mixture of incredulity and pleading. "I'm from Bakersfield, and I've been coming to Banff in Chico for almost 15 years."
I was forced to reply, through a slew of apologies, that the show had indeed sold out that morning. The steps of the Bell Memorial Union were crammed with people with the same response to the sold out signs that were plastered across the Banff Mountain Film Festival 2013 signs.
This year, the annual Banff Mountain Film Festival, was sold out for the first time -- filling the 750 available spots in the Bell Memorial Union. The outdoor adventure film tour comes all the way from Banff Canada and Chico State is one of the many stops on Banff's world wide tour.
The festival featured a three hour series of films with a range of stories of famous kayakers and rock climbers to the trials of extreme snowshoeing and canyoneering. Adventure Outings also hosted a used gear sale, a prize drawing competition, and provided free Kicking Horse Coffee samples.
Complementary prize drawing ticket were provided upon entrance for an Banff intermission prize drawing, and additional prize drawing tickets were sold for a chance at winning one of five prize packages, each between an $80 and $130 value. The money made from the prize drawing tickets went directly to Adventure Outings "Get Outdoors!" scholarship fund and prize packages included a combination of gifts from Mountain Sports, Sports LTD, Chico Bags, Moosejaw, Klean Kanteens, and more. We'd also like to thank LRT Graphics for producing posters and an awesome banner for us.
We attribute the success of the event in part to our sponsors Rec Sports and Mountain Sports and many more. All of us here at Adventure Outings are already preparing and looking forward to spring 2014 Banff Mountain Film Festival!