The past two weekends have been glorious on the Sunshine Coast.
On the August long weekend, we played host to the third annual Sechelt Arts Festival, the second annual Crafts in the Hood Craft Fair at Sechelt Elementary School and the 24th annual Festival of the Written Arts.
Then last weekend, the Festival of the Rolling Arts hit the streets with the Sleepy Hollow Rod Run, downtown Show n' Shine and drag races at the airport.
All of these events brought thousands of people to the Coast, which translated to an economic boom for restaurants, shops, gas stations, liquor stores, hotels and B&Bs.
It was great to see these wonderful events on back-to-back weekends bringing so much variety and differences in culture to our community.
But there may be scheduling problems looming for next year.
Rumours began circulating on Saturday that the Festival of the Written Arts have already confirmed they will be moving next year's festival to the second weekend in August, meaning a significant conflict with the Festival of the Rolling Arts.
Both events do so much for the Coast. It could be a logistical nightmare on Cowrie Street and around Rockwood if both events were to try to go on the same weekend.
Having the Festival of the Written Arts co-exist with the Arts Festival and the Crafts in the Hood event on the same weekend was a brilliant plan. All of the events tied together nicely and it was great to bounce back-and-forth between all the events.
We hope that representatives from both festival weekends will work together to try to make both events happen on separate weekends. We'd hate to see one event compromised for the other.
Call for the voteA referendum on restructuring will take place and that's good news.
Kudos to the committee for their due diligence, to the community for their involvement and Minister Ida Chong for recognizing that a vote must take place. Everyone affected will get to have his or her say on Nov. 18. If enough are in favour, restructuring will begin. If the nos win out, well, that's fine too. At least the question will be asked and answered and this issue can finally be resolved.
