Polytechnic ends Coulee Fest

By Lethbridge Herald on February 14, 2026.

Herald file photo Mascot Kodi welcomes families to campus during a past year's Coulee Fest at the then called Lethbridge College.

By Alexandra Noad

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter- Lethbridge Herald

After nine years, Lethbridge Polytechnic has announced the ending of Coulee Fest.

Coulee Fest has been celebrated since 2017 and began to commemorate the polytechnic’s 60th anniversary.

Stephanie Savage, associate director of external engagement, says this was a difficult decision, but was ultimately made to redirect resources to students.

“To deliver Coulee Fest in the way people love and need it to be delivered, it takes resources that we need to allocate to other things right now.”

Some of these resources include freeing up time for faculty, who would often volunteer over eight hours of their time to make the event a success.

Each year, 90 faculty members spent over eight hours volunteering at Coulee Fest. Savage says the discontinuation of the event will allow faculty to be able to redirect the time they would spend volunteering at the event to better support their students.

While Coulee Fest may be a thing of the past, Savage says Lethbridge Polytechnic is still committed to community partnerships.

“All of those partnerships open up new channels to bring in, whether it’s work integrated learning placements for our students, or for new partnerships that can help advance some of the curriculum on our programs,” says Savage. “The more we can spend time building we can spend time building different relationships in that regard, we can open some more of those channels to help students get where they need to be.”

As the Coulee Fest chapter closes, Lethbridge Polytechnic expresses their sincere gratitude to everyone who made the event a success over the last nine years.

“It wasn’t just our event; it really became an event that was all about this community as a whole and it never could have happened without those people being apart…and we so much appreciate what they did for us.”