Canadian Pacific Holiday Train

In 1999, Canadian Pacific Railway developed a holiday fundraiser for food banks in Canada and the US that benefit the communities in which they operate. A few years into the CP Holiday Train campaign, Canadian Pacific identified a need for assistance with talent programming, procurement and buying.

WHAT WE DID

TFA:
  • Worked closely with the Canadian Pacific team to identify musicians to perform concerts from the 8-foot boxcar
  • Negotiated more than 150 performances to take place on two trains each year
  • Expertly communicated the unique opportunity and special needs of these performances to potential performers
  • Troubleshot and resolved all entertainment-related issues that arose during the three week, annual campaign
  • Administered all deposits and payments to contracted talent
  • Produced special programming such as three large-scale concerts featuring Sheryl Crow (Minneapolis), Sarah McLachlan & The Tenors (Calgary) and Tom Cochrane & Great Big Sea (Hamilton) to mark the 15th anniversary of the campaign

    • THE RESULT

    The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train, North America’s longest and largest rolling food bank fundraiser, is now a hallmark of the holiday season in both Canada and the US. The campaign has raised more than $12 million and provided over 3.9 million pounds of food to community-based food banks. More than 80 artists have performed on the train, including 2015’s passengers Jim Cuddy, Kira Isabella, Devin Cuddy, Chic Gamine, Wes Mack, Kelly Prescott and Doc Walker. The 2015 trains raised more than $1.4 million and 300,000 pounds of food and saw record crowds in many communities and estimated overall attendance of 450,000 people over the 23 days. Plans for 2016 have begun.

    VIDEO