Vancouver's summer fireworks cancelled for 2009

Update: March 11, 2009 - Good news! The fireworks have been rescheduled! See this recent blog entry for more details.

Yesterday evening there was gossip circulating around the Vancouver travel forums, and sadly, this morning's newspapers confirmed the fact: after 18 years, Vancouver will no longer be hosting its major summer fireworks event, the Celebration of Light.

It turns out that the annual international fireworks competition was $400,000 short of the $1,500,000 needed in sponsorship funding. As a result, the city's without its most popular event of the year for both 2009 and possibly 2010.

Formerly the Benson & Hedges Symphony of Fire, when tobacco advertisements went out of fashion - "a cigarette company funding a family event? *gasp* how could they?!" - the popular festival had to find a new ethically-responsible corporate sponsor to appease the Vancouver public. Time was running out to find new sponsorship, but HSBC came along and took over where Benson & Hedges left off. A name change also occurred and the Symphony of Fire became the HSBC Celebration of Light. With an international bank in place of a tobacco corporation, the public was at ease and so continued the summer tradition.

On the last Wednesday and Saturday of July and the first Wednesday and Saturday of August, three participating countries would compete for the best fireworks display. The fireworks started at 10pm and would last for about half an hour. What made the displays unique was that they were synchronized to music. Each night would be a different country's display and on the fourth and final night of the festival, it would be the grand finale and the announcement of the winning team.

The fireworks would be set up on a barge floating out in English Bay. The accompanying music would be broadcast on local radio and blasted out to the beach. Hundreds of thousands of people - tourists and locals alike - would gather along English Bay, Kits Beach, the various stretches of seawall, and would wait for hours until 10pm when fireworks display would begin. Nearby apartment dwellers hosted fireworks parties for their friends - their balconies filled to capacity in anticipation of the spectacle. The bay would be loaded with hundreds of pleasure boats and cruise ships - all there to witness the special event. As you can imagine, the atmosphere was something else.

So when I first heard about the news of the cancellation, my reaction was initially that of disappointment. I personally think it's unfortunate that Vancouver's losing its largest public event. The fireworks were truly a special event situated at one of the most scenic locations in the city during the most beautiful time of the year. It brought immense business to the city, particularly to the hotels, restaurants, and local businesses. It also brought great pleasure to the thousands of people in Greater Vancouver who looked forward to it every year.

But while many are grieving the loss of the event, there are equally many locals celebrating the festival's demise. It's easy to write off the complaints as NIMBYism at its finest, but perhaps the event was getting too big (and out of control) for its own good.

Many who live in the West End or around Kitsilano would come to loathe the annual gathering that would trash their neighbourhoods and turn the beaches into public dumping grounds. For those who required to drive downtown, the inconvenience of street closures was frustrating, especially the event's aftermath: traffic congestion of epically nightmarish proportions. The mass exodus of 100,000 people made for insanity for the city's transit infrastructure. Even on the water, with the greater amount of nautical novices operating in the dark, boating accidents became a reality.

Many would blame teenagers and youth coming in from the local suburbs for using the event as an excuse to get obnoxiously drunk in public, often resulting in mischief, vandalism and public violence. Families with young children would feel uncomfortable with the swearing, public urinating, and total debauchery of the drunken idiots. One year, several stabbings took place.

And on the night of the fireworks, the Vancouver Police Department would make their announcements in the media about their zero tolerance for those found with alcohol in public. One year in an attempt to prevent public drunkenness, they went a step too far and confiscated anyone carrying alcohol on the Vancouver-bound Skytrains regardless of whether they were actually on their way to the fireworks or not. And let's not forget the true ending of the night with the police helicopters shining spotlights down on the crowds as they disperse through the downtown streets.

Vancouver is known locally as the "No Fun City" for reasons such as these. So while it's a shame, it's also good riddance.

And on that note, here are some photos I took at the Celebration of Light in the summer of 2005. I highly encourage you to click on each photo as its full size really gives you a sense of the atmosphere.

At Davie and Denman, the West End is already closed to traffic.

Crowds gathering at English Bay hours before the fireworks.







The sun is setting, the fireworks will be starting soon.

Battlestar Gallactica

Vancouver! It's sci-filicious!
Science fiction has an undeniable love affair with Vancouver.

It seems that the many popular sci-fi TV series like to take advantage of the pseudo anonymity of the city - its postmodern skyline, its lush and moody atmosphere, and the diverse topography that encircles it.

We've seen it in the X-Files.
We've seen it in Smallville.
We've seen it in Dark Angel.
We've seen it in Stargate.
We've even seen it in Spielberg's miniseries, Taken.

That doesn't even begin to cover the full feature sci-fi movies like X-Men: The Last Stand, On the Sixth Day, or The Fantastic Four. And this doesn't even include the the oldie but goody non sci-fi series of yesteryear like Danger Bay, MacGyver, or 21 Jump Street.

But all of the above were filmed in Vancouver.

It's by no means the complete list of titles filmed in this city - there are literally thousands - but it just shows you that there's something about Vancouver that's very fitting for bringing out that sci-fi vibe.

Well, last night we rented the entire first series of Battlestar Gallactica and it was my first time watching it. Something in the back of my mind made me think that it was filmed in Vancouver. Hmmm... perhaps it was the fact that it was yet another sci-fi TV series! After a quick look up on IMDB, I confirmed that fact. Of course, it wouldn't have taken long for me to figure this out on my own. If you're even quasi familiar with Vancouver geography, you instantly begin to recognize landmarks and film locations when you're watching such shows - it almost becomes a game!

It's funny, as you're sitting there trying to make believe that you're on planet Caprica, and then all of a sudden "that's not Caprica, that's the Vancouver Public Library!" or "that's Chan Centre and the UBC Rose Garden! And that's not the Delphi base, that's UBC Koerner Library!" (where I studied for many an exam) - it can be rather amusing, especially when you're trying to immerse yourself in the fantasy of the story, but you recognize the temperate rainforest or the arbutus trees and Bowen Island in the background, and you instictively think "Horseshoe Bay"... or when the bad buys, the cylons, are retreating to their base, and you recognize the structure as an old parking garage next door to the pub you used to frequent after work, it can certainly be entertaining.

Although the strangest discovery was watching this cute character in the show named Cally. She almost reminds me of my sister. She seemed so incredibly familiar to me that I felt compelled to look her up as I just assumed I had seen her in another TV show recently. I looked up her character on the Battlestar Gallactica page and discovered her real name is Nicki Clyne. I looked up her bio which revealed that she's from my home town (Richmond), she's exactly 2 days older than my sister, and that throughout her acting career she pursued a degree at UBC. A-ha! So it's not that I saw her in another show, I swear I took a class with her at UBC. That must be why she seems so familiar.

Snow, again...

A snowy day back in December
This past weekend, after almost 2 weeks of perpetual fog, the sky finally cleared up. Yesterday, though sunny without a cloud in the sky, was cooooold! Okay, it was maybe only 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, but it felt much colder. I was standing at the bus stop out in Richmond and my feet were aching and my ears were burning. Despite wearing gloves, scarf, and a wool coat, I couldn't stop shivering.

This morning at 9am I woke up to snow! It covered the buildings, the rooftops and the parks, but the roads and sidewalks remained clear. Right now at quarter to 4, almost all of it has melted and it looks like your typical cloud-covered Vancouver winter day. Surprisingly, we really haven't had much of the famous rain this month - maybe a few days, tops.

While I didn't take any photos of today's light snowfall, I never did post the photos I took when I walked around downtown on December 17, 2008. These photos were taken at the beginning of many subsequent snowfalls which collectively became the largest snowfall ever recorded in Vancouver history. I mean, it just doesn't snow once and then melt like it normally does. It started to snow on and off in mid-December and didn't stop until January 4!

Even still, today, especially in higher altitude residential neighbourhoods (like around Shaughnessy or Point Grey), you can still see remnant snow piles on the side streets and in people's front yards. Even in low altitude Richmond (where the average altitude is below sea level!) there are piles of crusty snow lingering around in parking lots. It's pretty crazy. In all my 28 years, I've never seen snow last on the ground for this long, ever.

On that note, here's a glimpse of downtown Vancouver when the snow fell on December 17:

Homer Street

Looking down Davie Street

Davie Street

Power lines and business signs

Footprints outside the Vancouver Public Library

Walking down Richards

Seymour & Georgia

Walking along Dunsmuir

Robson & Hornby

Vancouver Art Gallery lion

The art gallery steps

Robson Street

Granville Street

Yaletown's Mainland Street

Yaletown's loading bay sidewalks

The Opus Hotel

Gorilla Food

Lorra at Gorilla Food
The other day my friend Lorra joined me on an afternoon outing. Lorra's been following a predominantly raw food diet since last year. While Vancouver's an extremely vegetarian-friendly city, the raw food lifestyle is still particularly niche and you have to go out of your way to find the few restaurants that specifically cater to it. Since she was coming downtown, she wanted to drop by Gorilla Food.


Gorilla Food appears to play a major role in Vancouver's raw food community. They're located downtown at #101-436 Richards Street (between Pender and Hastings), open daily from 11am until 5pm, and it should be noted that they only take cash. But when you walk down the steps and through their front door, it feels as if you should be in the Gulf Islands or in Tofino, not bordering Gastown!

Inside Gorilla Food


I probably would have never visited Gorilla Food if it wasn't for Lorra. I'm sure like most people, when they imagine raw food diets, they might think little beyond salads and carrot sticks, but it tends to be a lot more complex than that. The secret to having interesting raw food, aside from fresh ingredients, is having access to a good food processor and a food dehydrator. That's when you can really be creative and make a diversity of uncooked recipes you would have never thought possible. As a result, Gorilla Food's menu is creative and satisfyingly delicious.

Now this wasn't my first time to Gorilla Food - my first visit was with Lorra back in October. We visited for lunch and sat down to a full meal. Lorra had their Veggie Burger ($7.50) - two veggie burger patties made from walnuts, sunflower seeds, hempseeds and veggies served on a lettuce leaf "bun" with guacamole, ginger tomato sauce, sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and shredded seasonal veggies.

I had their Cashew Alfredo Zucchini Linguine ($10) - raw zucchini carved into thin noodles smothered in a rich creamy cashew garlic sauce, served with a green leaf salad (with ginger dressing). For dessert, we both had their dark raw chocolate fudge ($2.50 a bar) made simply with raw cocoa and dates.

The food was incredibly refreshing and, contrary to what one might believe, it was very filling. So to all the skeptics, don't necessarily write off a full raw food meal before trying one!

This time during our visit, Lorra quickly popped in and picked up a snack of fresh guacamole and tomato herb flax crackers ($7.50) which she ordered to go, and then we were off to enjoy the rest of our afternoon.

6:30am this morning

I was just sent this photo (if you know the photographer, please let me know). It was taken at 6:30am this morning from Cypress Mountain overlooking downtown Vancouver. Pretty amazing stuff.

Kits in the fog

It was yet another foggy day in Vancouver. I snapped this photo while passing by Kitsilano Beach Park. The water is right behind the trees, but of course, it's been obscured.

Foghorns

Well, well, well... just heard my first foghorn echoing around downtown!