The 47th annual Sea Cavalcade in Lower Gibsons ran over the weekend of July 25 and 26. The theme this year was the World Meets by the Sea, to recognize the many varied ethnic groups and cultures on the Coast.
Sunshine Coast Sea Cavalcade Society (SCSCS) chair Conchita Harding called this year’s festival a success, but said that lack of funding and volunteers made it particularly challenging.
“The Sea Cavalcade was good, I think it was another really successful year,” Harding said. “We didn’t have nearly the amount of public at some of the events [as in previous years] and I think that was due to the weather. Because the weather did play a little trick on us.”
The skies stayed clear through most of Saturday for events like the parade, but started to rain during the salmon barbecue, which dropped attendance significantly, Harding said.
“But they came back when it cleared,” she said.
The SCSCS doesn’t have the exact figures for attendance or money raised, but Harding said the children’s games and parade were well attended.
“That I know, because the traffic – there was a lot of cars to be moved around safely. It was very smooth, though.”
It was mostly clear for the fireworks, although Harding said they didn’t see as many people there as they had earlier in the day. She said it’s likely that many people left once it started raining, although, she added, a lot of people were probably watching them from their homes.
“Fireworks is always the highlight. Parade comes second, but we had incredible floats this year. The family concert was well attended considering the weather. And the ethnic dancers, too.”
The money raised by the festival goes directly back into funding for next year’s Sea Cavalcade. The Town of Gibsons offers some financial assistance, which pays for some of the fireworks. The Sunshine Coast Regional District also contributes funds that went to the children’s games and also part of the fireworks.
Everything else is paid for by donations and sponsorship, although Harding said that this year’ sponsorship was much lower than in previous years.
“Some of the events we couldn’t put on because we didn’t have the funding to pay for them. So we did the best we could with the resources we have.”
Volunteers were also in short supply this year. Harding cautioned that the festival would not be able to continue in future years without stronger financial support and more volunteers.
“Overall I think it was really good,” Harding said. “We were very happy.”
