Top 15 Yegventures Stories of 2015

It was a big year for Yegventures transitioning from its YouTube channel to website format. Launching only 6 months ago, the move quickly made Yegventures a recognizable name across Edmonton social media platforms. Even though the transition may have affected viewership of the original Yegventures channel as well as a break in content production the YouTube channel still managed to reach a quarter million views two months ahead of projections. Here are 15 most popular Yegventures from 2015 from the website and YouTube channel.

15. Sheep Parade Exclusive

Through social media, we found and jumped on the opportunity to cover the annual Sheep Leaving Parade in Fort Saskatchewan with an exclusive interview with the city’s mayor Gale Katchur discussing the history of how the event all began.

14. Grandin School Centennial Exclusive

This is the least viewed story on this list, but it was selected for the importance of the event. Grandin School celebrated its centennial this year with an event unveiling a mosaic mural. We were the only media to cover this celebration which includes a tour of the school.

13. Vegreville Pysanka at 40/ Mazankowski Way Exclusive

It wasn’t a top story by views, but it was a huge exclusive story for us. Yegventures was the only media that covered the official event in Vegreville to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Pysanka and the unveiling of Mazankowski Way, the main street for the town. It was a full RCMP ceremonial function that was captured in this story.

12. Magna Carta Exclusive

We were privileged to be the only media source in Edmonton to cover in-depth, visit of Magna Carta Canada at the Alberta Legislature. Working with the Visitors Centre, this video highlighted the 800th anniversary of the seal of the historic document.

11. The Face Behind Faces of Edmonton

We highlighted a few local businesses at Creative Edmonton’s Heroes Vs Villians Market including the live performances. The biggest interest to the story was that we interviewed the man behind the Faces of Edmonton, Shane Woodsmith.

10. Ultimate List of Free Museums in Edmonton

With the increasing cost of well, everything, we posted this ultimate list of free museums in Edmonton so families would be able to discover the city together without breaking the bank. Needless to say, this list became quite popular this fall.

9. How to Fix Transit Immediately

This is the most controversial story we published this year. These short term recommendations struck a chord with those who take transit regularly, while at the same time seen as unrealistic by critics who mainly drive. With a new transit manager at helm, changes will soon be happening at ETS regardless.

8. Urban Waterfalls That Will Blow Your Mind Exclusive

This was one of the website’s first stories and interest for the Jagare Ridge waterfall in Heritage Valley flowed in. The story covered both indoor and outdoor waterfalls of Edmonton, including the Great Divide waterfall on High Level Bridge. This remains one of the most viewed articles ever on the website.

7. Ice On Whyte 2015

Ice On Whyte is easily Edmonton’s favourite winter festival, with ice sculptures and ice slides being the main attractions. The opening day video helped to bring more visitors while at the same time sliding past 1000 views before the festival ended.

6. Metro LRT Opening Day First Train Exclusive

Many of the top stories this year were Yegventures exclusives, and this was one of the biggest exclusive stories we covered. With the many delays of the Metro Line, it finally opened in September and we got the exclusive footage of the first public journey on the line leaving at 5:42AM on September 6, 2015.

5. Hoang Long Opening First Look

Thanks to the foodies of the city, this story completely caught us off guard by the visits to the story. A short minute and a half video and the article describing its opening day set up became the big food story this year. Local food blog Only Here For The Food was the major attraction directing foodies to Hoang Long Fresh Market.

4. Opening Tour of Clareview Recreation Centre

The Clareview Rec Centre is a great new facility which opened in early 2015. Yegventures captured the facility and gave YouTube tour on its soft opening. With the multi-use facility, it’s hard not being the new popular building that everyone’s talking about.

3. Lost Phone Survives 10 Days in River and Joy Ride with Calgary Firemen

This was the first viral story the Yegventures website had and it was a big one out of Calgary. While it may be strange that a Calgary story made it on Yegventures, the story would not have been picked up by the media without the Yegventures exclusive. A tweet caught the Yegventures media desk and an article was written within an hour and caught by several media outlets including CBC and HuffPost (even referenced the Yegventures article). Here’s the full story of how the events occurred and how the phone reunited with its owner after an adventure.

2. Girl Rushes Stage and Kisses Adam Levine

This one is no surprise hitting second place as Maroon 5 is a household name. At the March concert in Edmonton, a girl ran onto the stage and managed to smootch front man Adam Levine before being taken by security and banned from Rexall Place.

1. Christmas At Bob’s

The story of Bob Fedina’s house came out of the middle of nowhere and within a couple weeks, became the most viewed event across several platforms. The album was first uploaded to the newly launched Yegventures Facebook page and within its first 24 hours generated over 50,000 views. Stories published in the latter part of December usually don’t make it on a Year-In-Review, but it still generated over 3000 views on YouTube. More of the story is here, or view the video.