Greater Victoria Festival Society wins gold for Victoria Day weekend
The Greater Victoria Festival Society won gold on Wednesday night in the Canadian Event Awards’ Best Market/Fair or Festival category for its 125th annual victoria day Festival Weekend. Executive director Kelly Kurta said the group thought it had little chance in a field that included Invictus Games in Vancouver and other larger events.
Kelly Kurta on the win
Kurta said there were nine or 10 entries in the category and that some of the competing events had budgets of $250,000 or more. She described the result as a surprise to a small organization competing against bigger programs in Toronto and elsewhere.
“There were nine or 10 people in our category and one of them was Invictus,” she said. “We thought we didn’t have a chance.” She added: “It feels incredible. We put in a lot of hard work and we’re a small team and we’re super committed to make this happen, and we have such a small budget.”
Canadian Event Awards judging
Judges in the category reviewed appeal, sustainability, vendor engagement, attendee interaction, risk management and other factors. Kurta said the scale of the competition included categories such as best wedding over a million dollars and best corporate event over a million dollars.
“Competing with the big guys and big guns in Toronto is huge,” she said. The award went to the society’s festival weekend held last year, not the parade planned for this spring.
May 18 parade route
The Thrifty Foods 126th Victoria Day Parade is planned for May 18 and CHEK will broadcast and livestream it. This year’s route starts near the B.C. legislature and heads up Government Street and Wharf Street before looping back around.
Kurta said the parade previously departed from the Mayfair mall area and came into the Inner Harbour. She said the new route and new safety requirements are creating budget and logistics challenges, and that this year’s parade will be scaled down compared with last year’s milestone anniversary event. “I’m positive, I love the parade weekend, it’s one of my favourite weekends, but I guess I’m saddened with the change in the route,” she said.
