Editor:
I’m sure many will congratulate themselves over the Canada Day celebration in White Rock this year.
While there were some positives, I found the whole thing boring beyond words. Walking down the hill, we thought we had gotten the wrong day as it was so darn quiet.
The bandstand was OK, sometimes, but the walk among vendors specializing in mediocre products – soap, furniture, dull crap you find at the night markets – the lack of children’s activities, the sheer pointless boredom of it all was amazing.
I’ve had more fun there on an ordinary Saturday in February.
A few inexpensive suggestions: hire a clown, a street magician and a balloon artist and let them loose in the crowd. Make people smile and laugh, very cheap.
Set aside one of the parking lots and invite some of those awesome hotrods that cruise Marine Drive all summer to show off their beautiful machines.
Have vendors with interesting products, kites, frisbees, beach balls and so on that encourage people to do something. The most popular booth was DirectVision giving away sunglasses.
Sell popcorn at various points – there was one, a volunteer outfit, which packed up early.
Find an acrobatic plane/pilot at Boundary Bay or some such to do a few loops over the water.
Have more performers on the pier, dancers and musicians and performers from the various local dance schools.
Have volunteers talk about local history.
Invite everyone from Blaine.
All these are dirt cheap and require only a little bit of imagination. I mean gee, this was soooo boring, I couldn’t believe it.
Important: have clear maps. Directions noted East Beach and West Beach, but these are nowhere on any map. Initially, we thought West Beach might be Crescent Beach.
Also, put the site of the fireworks on the map and move the fireworks out to the water on a barge: It will allow more people to see.
We were up on the hill and heard everything, couldn’t see anything at all.
A.P. Hovasse, White Rock