Canada’s greatest water show
The Kelowna International Regatta was truly Canada’s premier summer celebration, especially during the 1940s and ’50s. When less than 10,000 people lived here, 100,000 would arrive to race and dive and paddle and row, dance and entertain, march and make music, represent and fly over, party and party some more, and celebrate the Okanagan’s glorious summer. Everyone was involved, from “Mr. Regatta,” the enthusiastic mayor cum promoter, Dick Parkinson, to every service club who recruited, sold tickets, and organized marching bands, and the Kelowna Little Theatre which created evening productions, usually featuring headline performer, for thousands of spectators who filled the open-air wooden grandstand overlooking the in-lake pool and diving platform. Ladies Auxiliaries made costumes, organized fashion shows and the Lady of the Lake pageant, while also taking care of visiting “royalty,” and pitching in wherever needed.
Crowds lined Bernard Avenue for the annual Regatta parade while the adventurous perched on the flat rooftops of stores lining the street. Marching bands paraded between elaborate floats, clowns rode their tiny bicycles in and out and threw candies to those dodging the firemen who squirted the packed crowds with water guns. Every business, every cultural group, and every club had their own float, or lumber carrier, or horses, or cherry pickers in the procession. And all the best convertibles in town were borrowed so visiting dignitaries ride and wave to the crowds. The Lady of the Lake, who always had the best float in the parade, emerged from a clam shell or was perched beside the Ogopogo, and drew the largest applause. Then she and her princesses headed off to the muchdecorated Memorial Arena for the Lady of the Lake Ball — it was only one of several that night.
The private cars of railway vice presidents were parked on nearby sidings, as various bank managers, who each lived in their own ‘bank residence,’ quietly competed to have the most talked about garden party of the season.
The Lieutenant Governor installed his private residence in Okanagan Mission, and Kelowna’s own Silver Fox, Art Jones, designed and piloted his own hydroplane to become the fastest man in the Okanagan. He made sure that Kelowna, midway between Seattle and Detroit, became part of the ”World’s Fastest Power Boat Circuit.”
These grand celebrations took place at the Kelowna Aquatic Club in City Park. They began in 1906, along “Cold Sands Beach” that is beside the north facing walkway extending beyond Bernard Avenue. When the first Okanagan Lake Bridge was built in 1958, the water flow changed and carried that wide sandy beach down to Manhattan Point, but before that happened, this was the gathering place for those looking for shady picnic spots and was where daily summer swimming lessons took place. It was an alternative to the hottest, best sun tanning, south facing, “Hot Sands Beach.” By 1912, an 800-seat grandstand had been built so spectators could watch war canoe, rowing, and sailing races.
The Aquatic Club continued to grow as did its signature Kelowna Regatta, and the club house and Ogopogo Stadium moved further west, where today the point of land angles south toward the bridge. A patch of asphalt is the only hint that something greater once happened here. The clubhouse became grander, including a restaurant and ballroom, with change rooms and racing shell storage below. The 6,000 seat Ogopogo Stadium sold out and barges pulled alongside, seats were added, and more people enjoyed the spectacular evening performances taking place on the stage across the swimming pool.
During WW II, the regattas became patriotic events: the Victory Regatta; the Onto Victory Regatta, the Liberty Regatta when the organizing committee sent profits to the federal government to pay for Canada’s war effort. One event featured the “Allies” storming the Hot Sands Beach, intent on ferreting out the “Nazis” who had dug into sand trenches. Then Hitler was burned in effigy. By the 1950s, the International Regatta had become so popular, it spread over five fun-filled days.
But Kelowna’s summer soul was deeply embedded in the Aquatic Club. Kids left home in the morning, swam nonstop, endlessly scared themselves by jumping off the 10-metre Athens diving tower, and returned home only when they were too tired to do it again.
Parents and visitors went to the Saturday night dances in the Aquatic Club Ballroom and twirled to the music of Pettman’s Imperials. Ladies lunched on the veranda, local kids became the lifeguards who kept watch on the masses in the in-lake pool.
Mini-regattas, or Aquacades, were held every couple of weeks for local kids to compete against each other in a variety of swimming races, and a generation of rhythmic swimmers (now synchronized swimmers) learned to perform their elaborate routines to enchanted onlookers.
So . . . what happened? Where’s the Aquatic Club and that amazing 10 metre diving tower? Why isn’t there a Kelowna International Regatta today? Why is this story not mentioned anywhere near this bend in the path as a reminder that there was a time when all Kelowna gathered and celebrate its summers. And did so more grandly, more passionately, more enthusiastically and with greater flair than anyone else before or since.
Those wooden bleachers burned to the ground in 1969. Then events began to drift away from the lake, competitive swimmers wanted chlorinated pools, and the regatta lost its lustre and its focus. And between that disastrous fire and Expo 86, the entertainment world became more professional, more sophisticated, and more expensive, and the Kelowna International Regatta didn’t make that transition. When the usual Regatta weekend rolled around in both 1986 and 1987, events were high-jacked by unruly mobs which created havoc. The mayor read the Riot Act — both years — and city council cancelled the Kelowna International Regatta — forever.
However, Kelowna’s signature summer water show had been a grand event, and the Kelowna Aquatic Club was the legendary gathering place for everyone who lived here. Both are a vital part of our city’s history, and those stories need to be available where it all happened — on that slight bend on the City Park walkway . . . so everyone who passes by today can read about this vital part of Kelowna’s past.
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The Kelowna Branch of the Okanagan Historical Society operates on the unceded traditional territory of the Syilx people. It gratefully acknowledges their traditional knowledge, the elders and all those who have gone before us.
This article is part of a series, submitted by the Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Historical Society. Additional information would be welcome at P.O. Box 22105, Capri P.O., Kelowna, B.C., V1Y 9N9.