Between the Bridges
Between the Bridges was a collaborative dining and cultural festival concept spanning five Lower Mainland communities: Burnaby, New Westminster, Port Moody, Coquitlam, and Port Coquitlam. Developed through a partnership between four destination marketing organizations and civic groups, the festival was designed to increase visitation to and between the communities by celebrating their collective arts, culture, and culinary offerings.
THE GOAL
Tourism New Westminster, Explore Burnaby, Tourism Coquitlam, and the City of Port Moody came together to create something that hadn't existed before: a shared festival identity that could hold four distinct communities under one roof. A new brand, website, and in-market activation tool needed to be created from scratch, and they needed to be ready in two months.
THE WORK
Elizabeth drew on her established network of independent creative professionals to assemble the right team quickly, retaining specialists in brand design and web development whose prior working relationships with Elizabeth meant less ramp-up time and more trust from the start.She managed every phase of the project from inception to delivery: stakeholder engagement with the four participating organizations, community and partner outreach to generate festival participation among local businesses and cultural destinations, strategic direction on brand development and web design, and timeline and communications management between the creative team and the client group.
A key deliverable was a physical passport for in-market activation: a tangible, collectible tool that encouraged visitors to explore across all five communities, with stamps earned at participating venues translating into contest entries. It was a simple mechanic that made cross-community exploration feel like an adventure rather than an itinerary.
The brand, website, and passport were completed and launched in March 2020, two months after the project began.
THE RESULTS
The work came together quickly and well. All four partner organizations were pleased with both the process and the outcome, and the brand and assets reflected the playful, creative spirit the festival was designed to embody.
Then COVID-19 arrived. The festival was postponed indefinitely before it could welcome a single visitor, through no fault of the work or the people behind it. The assets were designed to be evergreen, and while the festival itself was never relaunched in its original form, the collaboration demonstrated what was possible when neighbouring communities choose to tell a shared story, a model that continues to influence how destination organizations in the region think about collaboration.
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