Sudbury, Ont., event venues prepare for busy holiday season

Every weekend from now until Christmas the venues available at the Caruso Club in Greater Sudbury, Ont., are all fully-booked.

"Now you'll see people partying, having a good time, smiling," said general manager John Cimino. "You can tell there's a lot of people that are happy everything has been lifted and that they can go out."

Holiday parties are returning. That means venues are preparing for a busy season of bookings.

It's quite a change from the past two years when COVID-19 restrictions resulted in empty banquet halls and scaled-down celebrations.

Cimino said bookings at the Caruso Club are around 80 per cent of where they were  during the 2019 holiday season.

During the pandemic, restrictions on large gatherings meant the two halls had to close and the regular buffet meal in the restaurant also had to stop.

"For two years we'd walk through the hall, an empty hall is kind of eerie," Cimino said. "It's nice to be back."

Bookings are also strong until the spring for the newly-named Northern Credit Union (NCU) Community Centre. That's the home of Curl Sudbury.

"People want to do things. People want to get out and be involved and socialize and they're booking venues," said events co-ordinator Kelly Irvine.

She said people started contacting them in the summer to book their Christmas parties.  Some are even deciding to hold their parties in January.

"We don't have a Saturday open until the end of our curling season. That is in April," Irvine said.

The curling club is also seeing more interest in the sport with more curlers either returning or new athletes interested in joining. Plus larger bonspiels are also returning to the venue.

Irvine said their event this coming weekend marking 130 years of the Sudbury Curling Club is also expected to help bring in more business. 

"A not-for-profit curling community would not have survived the pandemic if it wasn't for the people that care about our building and care about who we are," Irvine said.