The Hyack Festival Association is planning to party in uptown New Westminster as part of its 41st annual Hyack Festival Week celebrations.
Uptown Live! - an uptown block party featuring music, food, and visual and performing arts - will take place in the uptown on Saturday, May 26, immediately following the Key West Ford Hyack International Parade.
"We have had some challenges trying to coordinate our Family Days event, which has been traditionally held in Queen's Park," said Hyack president Bill Radbourne. "The installation of the artificial field surface forced us to look at other options, and Uptown Live! is the result of our consultation with city staff and key stakeholders in the community. It makes a lot of sense to capitalize on the large crowds that gather for the parade in the area of Sixth Avenue and Sixth Street."
In past years an uptown street fair has been offered on a small section of Sixth Avenue on parade day, but Uptown Live! would take place on several streets around the parade route.
"It will be more entertainment driven - less focus on selling things and more focused on entertaining people," said Douglas Smith, executive director of Hyack Festival Association.
The proposal suggests that the block party would take place on portions of Sixth Avenue, Seventh Street, Sixth Street and Belmont Street but planning is still underway. Uptown Live! would include four stages featuring B.C. and regional talent, as well as children's performers.
Hyack believes the block party has the ability to provide a significant economic benefit for merchants and will encourage them to interact with the community.
"It's not about me bringing in vendors selling things on their doorsteps," he said. "The benefit of any economic driver needs to be the very merchants in the area."
Bart Slotman, vice-president of the Uptown Property Group that owns Westminster Centre and other commercial properties in the uptown, is very excited about the direction Hyack is taking in introducing Uptown Live!. He believes the event will have regional appeal.
"It has a very musical theme to it," he said. "It's not your typical arts and crafts type of thing."
While thousands of people have filled the uptown area during the parade, Slotman said many disappear after the road-closure barricades are removed, and 10 minutes after it ends no one can tell a parade even occurred. Uptown Property Group has provided Hyack with $10,000 so it can produce a higher quality event and keep folks in the area longer.
"We want to be able to put on a quality event," Slotman said. "If you are going to do it, you have to do it right."
In the past, the Uptown Street Fair has featured a handful of kids' rides and assorted vendors.
"We don't want to bring anything in that is in competition with what we already have. We have 40 restaurants and coffee shops within the two-block radius. It's much more interesting to bring them out onto the street and serve the clientele," Slotman said. "I think the real focus has to be on the food and entertainment. The focus is to create a fun event."
Family Days, a two-day event that featured assorted rides and carnival games provided by Shooting Star Amusements, has been offered at Queen's Park during the parade weekend. Its fate remained uncertain at The Record's press time.
Since learning that the east field in Queen's Park is now off-limits, Smith has explored other potential sites, including the parking lot behind Queen's Park Arena, the waterfront boardwalk, the parking lot below Inn at the Quay, Moody Park and the parking lot at New Westminster Secondary School - all of which were nixed for various reasons. At this point, two options are still being explored - the south field in Queen's Park (behind the stadium) and the Lowe's parking lot in Queensborough.
Although it's not in the cards for this year, Smith believes the Westminster Pier Park site has definite possibilities for future years.
"As we go into next year we will initiate other aspects of Hyack Festival Week," Smith said. "We will be focusing on Westminster Pier Park. We are looking at programming things down there."
For 2012, the association will hold the opening ceremonies for the Hyack Festival Week on the waterfront. The May 18 event will include fireworks and music.
In addition to launching the new Uptown Live! event during this year's Hyack Festival, the association is also planning to kick off the new Concerts on the Quay series this summer. One of the first events to go by the wayside is the Hyack Antique Car Parade on Easter Sunday, as it was felt the association was facilitating an event for a third party and it had no broad community benefit.
"Our strategy is to create a core group of signature events that are spread out through the year that are sustainable and have a very high-quality delivery model," Smith said. "We have been able to step back, look and review, audit what we do. We have come back with guns blazing."
A proposal presented to city council states that Hyack Festival Association's strategy aims to mix the city's best-loved traditions with a kaleidoscope of modern events. Going forward, Hyack aims to put on festivals and events that will be regional in scope, have broad community appeal and engage diverse multicultural communities.
Smith said that all of the core events that have been part of the history of New Westminster, including the Hyack Anvil Battery salute and rose plantings, are standalone events and will continue. He said the larger scale celebrations and events need to be as relevant as possible.
