With Musicfest a thing of the past and the Chamber of Commerce citing volunteer burnout to respectfully decline to organize various celebrations, a small group of Nakusp residents formed the Society for Nakusp Community Events. The organization which successfully put on Canada Day events and the Christmas Light Up in 2017, has their sights on those and additional events this year.
Councillor Tom Zeleznik spoke with the Arrow Lakes News about the festivities being planned for July 1, “We’ve got an amazing musical community. We don’t realize what we have in our own community. There is a group called Makeshift Mayhem, the PBJays are really really good. They are amazing. Then we’ve got Jesse Booth who used to live here and Kalee Knecht; it will be good to see them come back. Myles Murphy opened for Brett Kissel. Myles is amazing and very popular. The Foggy Goggle Boys are a fun band from Rossland- they get you up boogying right away. And the finale will be a band called Willi and the poorboys. They are a CCR tribute band from Vancouver, and right after that we’ll probably wrap it all up so everyone can go watch the fireworks.”
The May 28 Village Council meeting will see a report from the society as well as the following requests:Council approve the Service Provider Agreement from the Municipal Insurance Association of BC between the Village of Nakusp and the Society for Nakusp Community Events;
road closure for 1st Avenue NW from 9:00 am to 11:15 am be approved along with a no parking zone from 9:00 am to 11:30 am be established on 8th Avenue NW;
request to hold a Beer Garden on July 1, 2018 in the park area below the Soccer Pitch be approved subject to the Organizers obtaining all required licenses and permits, the provision of necessary insurance for the event, and the implementation of a “Game Plan-A Safe Ride Home” as per Policy GA(5) – Facility Rental Section 1 (L);
Permission is granted to the Society for Nakusp Community Events to host Food Vendors subject to the provision of necessary insurance and the Vendors meeting all applicable Public Health and Food Service regulations;
Council approve a 50% reduction as per Policy GC1 – Facility Rental for the fee waiver requests for the 2018 Canada Day Festivities on July 1st.
The plans for Nakusp’s small-town Canada Day festivities include the fire department’s pancake breakfast, parade down Broadway, opening ceremonies, kids’ games, a fish pond, bocce ball, food vendors, a beer gardens, and music all day until the fireworks at approximately 10 p.m.
There will be food vendors for lunch from noon until 3:00 P.M. and tickets will be sold for the dinner being catered by Hoss and Jill’s Bistro.
The biggest change from last year to this year is that now admission will be free. Zeleznik said, “We tried to secure funds from groups that can help.” They were awarded $7,000 for Canada Day celebrations in the 2018 Columbia Basin Trust Community Initiatives Projects vote.
He explained, “It’s very time consuming. We had to build a stage last year. We have to go and set it all up. We have to work with the village and make sure that they will support the event. They really helped us out last year. If it wasn’t for the village last year, we couldn’t have done what we did. The staff were great. Again we are just a small group and we work full time jobs. We do it because we love the community and we love music and it attracts tourism. This could be an annual event.”
Volunteers are always welcome and needed to pull off an event of this scale- please contact the Facebook page Society for Nakusp Community Events to become involved.