There will be poop scoops and prizes aplenty at Servus Place next week as St. Albert’s annual business expo returns to town — this time guest-starring the farmers market.
The St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce will host the 2025 Lifestyle Expo and Sale April 25-27 at Servus Credit Union Place. Some 230 St. Albert-area companies and non-profit groups will be there to promote local commerce and community to more than 13,000 guests.
New to this year’s expo is a pop-up version of the St. Albert Farmers’ Market, which will take up about a quarter of the expo’s grounds, said Jane Ilott, events manager for the St. Albert and District Chamber.
“People in the community love their farmers market, and there’s a long stretch from Christmas to June,” Ilott said, referring to the gap between the market’s Christmas edition and its usual opening in June.
The pop-up market replaces both the food trucks featured in past expos and the Baby Crawl, the latter of which has likely been held at every expo since 2003. (The Gazette could not confirm if there was a Baby Crawl at the 2010 expo.) St. Albert Chamber chair Angie Hampshire said organizers decided to pause the Baby Crawl because of declining interest.
Ilott said this year’s expo features a wide array of St. Albert companies dealing with the trades, power sports, home care, and other fields. It should also have a petting zoo, kid-powered rides, a car display organized by West Side Acura, and (space permitting) a 30-member choir.
Many booths will have additional activities for guests to try.
Carmal Huppie of True North Heating and Cooling said guests at her booth can check out her company’s moose-emblazoned van and enter to win gift cards to St. Albert businesses. Edmonton artist Catherine McMillan will also be on hand to create free caricatures.
Rebecca Krecsy-Chambers of Chambers Plumbing and Heating said her booth will feature efficient hydronic forced-air furnaces and Captain Sump Pump — one of a series of plumbing-based superheroes featured on the company’s social media site, said owner. Guests that visit early can also get a free “poo knife.”
“It’s not a real knife,” Krecsy-Chambers said, in that it’s more like a plastic shoe-horn, but the poo knife does address the real — and hilarious — problem some of her customers have had of having a clogged toilet and no plunger.
“People are going crazy over it! They’re asking if they can pick them up for stocking stuffers!”
Krecsy-Chambers said the poo knives were joke items designed to show how her company has a sense of humour.
The Great West Media booth will see the winners of the Great Alberta Hockey Pool compete for a grand prize, said Tim Shoults, a vice-president with Great West Media (which publishes the Gazette). Contestants will win $50,000 if they can correctly guess a four-digit number contained in a sealed envelope that will be opened during the expo.
A guide to the expo will be printed in the April 17, 2025 issue of the Gazette. Tickets to the expo are $3 ($10 for families, free for kids under 5). Seniors get in free on April 25. Visit stalbertchamber.com/lifestyleexpo for details.
