By all accounts, the fifth annual Jasper Dark Sky Festival was a huge success, with sold out events and a packed weekend schedule to close out the nine-day festival.

According to Tourism Jasper, both of its headline events—The Sky is Not the Limit with Chris Hadfield and A Night of Mythbusting and Science with former members of the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters—were sold out with 1,300 people in attendance for each show.

“The event was a huge success,” said Nancy Gordy, a spokesperson for Tourism Jasper, in an emailed statement.

“It continues to grow year after year and it’s taken on international status as we had visitors from all over Canada, the UK, the United States and more.”

She said it’s still too early to know the impact the festival had for the local hotel industry, but she noted that 97 per cent of the attendees were from out of town.

She also said that from the 2,600 tickets that were sold for the two events, 2,000 of those tickets were “Star Packages,” indicating those people would have likely stayed in Jasper for more than one day in order to catch both shows.

Once again, the highlight of the festival was an appearance by Col. Chris Hadfield, who shared stories about his time on the International Space Station and regaled the audience with witty jokes about living in zero gravity.

“If I spill my water here of course it’s boring what happens, but if you spill your water in a spaceship it turns into this living jellyfish that just hovers around inside the ship with you,” said Hadfield, explaining to the audience you need to use a straw to drink it otherwise it just splatters all over your face.

“And you can be that ball of water,” said Hadfield. “You just pull your knees up to your chest and you can do a thousand summersaults. It’s magical.

“I wish just for the next five minutes I could shut off gravity in this tent. It would be comical to watch what would happen.”

Following Hadfield’s talk, which ended with him singing a song off his new album, Space Sessions, people headed over to Lake Annette, which managed to draw large crowds despite overcast skies.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, however, was Hadfield’s unexpected appearance at the official after party presented by Mountain Galleries at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge.

For many people it was a chance to meet Hadfield in person and ask any burning questions they might have, for others it was an opportunity to get a picture with the astronaut.

On Saturday, Telus World of Science hosted a variety of activities, including the always popular, Big Bang Expo, which included dozens of rocket launches.

Later that evening, the former co-hosts of the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters, took part in a Q and A with local science writer Niki Wilson, sharing intimate stories about the show and fielding questions from the audience.

Once the show wrapped up, people packed the Visitor’s Information Centre lawn to take advantage of the clear sky and gaze into outer space, thanks to telescopes provided by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

The Dark Sky Festival officially kicked off on Oct. 16 with a slew of activities, from catching a meteor show at the top of the Jasper SkyTram to a four-course dinner inside the Jasper Planetarium.

Paul Clarke

reporter@fitzhugh.ca