[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Pretty much - she asked for the road closure and then tried to figure out what to do with it.

And that is pure conjecture on your part. No, it is less than conjecture. I remember at the time her saying in the media exactly what it was for. Perhaps the festival just didn't have a name yet, nor was every little detail planned, but why would anyone expect every detail to have been decided before the location was finalized?

Also:
From the FAQs on the festival's website:

Why not just use the pathway?

First: If you ride a bike, for health, environmental, or financial reasons, downtown riding is often terrifying. Bicycles need dedicated lanes on the road so they're safe and so that the slower pathways are also safe. the The Bow River Flow will help show that cars aren't the only transportation on our roads. In the 2006 study, a quarter of cyclists had been in an accident in the past two years.

Second: Another reason for this event to be on the road is that Memorial can handle 3,000 cars\hr and on a sunday there are 850\hr. There's a cyclist every seven seconds at busy times on the pathways and our neighbourhood is one of the busiest. Sunday is the day of lightest traffic on Memorial Dr. While the paths are jammed with platoons of 30 at a time running clubs (hats off to them!), Memorial Dr. is least used of any day of the week. We've got dog walkers, roller bladers and skaters all sharing the pathway with strollers and toddlers.

Third: Memorial Drive is beautiful now and only going to get better. Calgarians are proud of the Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall and the Bow River Flow adds a non-commercialized pedestrian mall to the list of Calgary's events. We're looking forward to seeing dogs dressed up as clowns and little kids dressed up as superheros and fairies marching together down Memorial Dr.

Finally: This event will get more Calgarians out on our pathways encouraging us all to get some sun, stay fit, and visit with neighbours.

If there ever was a reason for a festival to be every Sunday, this is it. It's for no other reason than to let more people enjoy the space along the river. It's not so that the place can be packed every week, it's trying to encourage more people to come out more often. That's why it probably was envisioned as happening on four consecutive weeks.