Fairmont Hotels in Banff and Lake Louise Create Unique Story-telling Series in Closed Castles
Banff, AB – Travelers around the world have had to put their plans on hold however it hasn’t stopped them from daydreaming about their next destination. And employees at Fairmont Hotels and Resorts in Canada’s Western Mountain Region are dreaming about welcoming guests back. In anticipation of the hotels’ June reopening, Fairmont Banff Springs and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise released the first in a series of wistful and whimsical vignettes titled “The Art of Waiting”.
The videos were created in collaboration with Canmore-based Carter-Ryan Productions and draw on the talent of Alberta-based theatre professionals who have been unable to perform due to recent restrictions. ”Each vignette features an Albertan artist, recorded at various studios in Alberta by Albertan musicians, and produced and directed by a team of Alberta artists,” said Bridget Ryan, Carter-Ryan Productions co-owner. “The arts, in just about every medium, has taken a huge hit during this pandemic. I was thrilled that the Fairmont supported this creative initiative, and saw the value of healing and connecting with their guests through humour, song, and dance by some of Alberta’s most incredible talent.”
The first video, “The Art of Waiting: The Bellhop”, opens with a long shot of the grandiose lobby of Fairmont Banff Springs. As the camera settles on a lonely looking bellhop, played by Calgary-based Andrew MacDonald Smith, he notices a coat on a luggage rack, clearly left behind. The bellhop breaks into a jazzy rendition of Irving Berlin’s “All Alone” as the coat comes to life and the bellhop sings and tap dances his way past picture-windows and across expansive ballrooms throughout the hotel’s normally-bustling 72,000 square feet of meeting space.
The five vignettes – the brainchild of David Roberts, Fairmont Banff Springs General Manager and Regional Vice-President at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Canada’s Western Mountain Region – showcase the extraordinary architecture, expansive space, and pristine mountain locations of the historical hotels through story-telling roles of “Stomp”-inspired Groundskeepers, an opera-singing Housekeeper, a fiery Chef, and an impatient Concierge, in addition to the Bellhop. The videos will be released on the hotels’ social media channels in coming weeks however the playlist can be seen on the hotel’s YouTube channel here.
“Each video ends with ‘We can’t wait to see you’ because we really cannot wait to welcome our guests back,” stated Roberts. And to the guests, he says, “We are just the caretakers – these are your hotels.”