14-foot Indigenous art piece, lakefront restaurant highlights of Hawrelak Park grand re-opening

Hawrelak Park is having its grand reopening after years and $134 million in renovations. CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Weisberg has a look.

The long-anticipated William Hawrelak Park will show off its newest and brightest attractions on Saturday.

The city’s largest central park, which re-opened mid-March after three years of rehabilitation work, saw crowds on a scorching hot Friday at its newest (and first ever) lakefront restaurant, Lift Me Up on the Lake.

The popular feature is owned by Seble Isaac, who also oversees Tiramisu Bistro on 124 Street. She says it’s been unexpectedly busy with the warmer weather.

“I think we served over 1,000 people last Saturday … a big lineup, and sometimes running out of things just because of the sheer amount of people we’re serving,” she said Friday.

“When you open a restaurant, you expect to be busy, but this is extremely busy, and there’s no dead time.”

The park’s $134-million upgrades saw the replacement of storm and sanitary sewer lines, electrical and mechanical infrastructure, and beautification efforts by way of structure renovations, grading and landscaping.

Among those efforts stands a 14-foot beaded earring created by Nehiyaw Isko artist Cheyenne Rain LeGrande from Bigstone Cree Nation.

The piece was completed Thursday, installed Friday and will be unveiled publicly at Saturday’s official grand opening event.

“To have a piece that is by an Indigenous artist in celebration of Indigenous people, to have a piece here, is so meaningful,” LeGrande said on Friday.

Saturday’s event marks the completion of everything the three-year rehabilitation project set out to do. A full list of park-wide attractions can be found online.

Edmonton Transit Service shuttles will also run to the park from the Windsor Car Park at the University of Alberta all day Saturday in anticipation of large crowds.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg