Check out our list of the Valley’s best multi-day festivals
Wine, classic rock, slopitch, art walks, rodeos, parades... There’s something for everyone in the Okanagan
The Okanagan Valley has more than 100 multi-day festivals annually and they’re all good and for different reasons. Our staff sharpened our pencils and came up with our list of the 10 best, presented alphabetically.
Okanagan Top 10 debuted on Jan. 6 and this was probably our toughest list yet because there are so many great events.
Consideration was given to longevity, number of out-of-town visitors, local involvement and overall entertainment value.
What we came up with was a nice mix of sports, the arts, and music. The one common theme among all 10 of our selections is volunteers. We wouldn’t have these great festivals without them.
ARMSTRONG IPE
The Armstrong fair is a must-attend event for people across the Okanagan and beyond every year.
The Interior Provincial Exhibition, which will be celebrating its 119th year this summer, typically attracts more than 150,000 visitors to the town of 5,000.
“It’s a nice finale to everyone’s summer before the kids go back to school,” said Yvonne Paulson, IPE general manager.
The fair has something for everyone, with rodeo events, 4H competitions, farm animals, a parade, carnival rides and deepfried treats.
Every year, the IPE board chooses a charity to donate funds to, with money coming from 4H auctions.
This year’s IPE will be held Aug. 29 to Sept. 2, and the theme will be Sheep Thrills.
CENTER OF GRAVITY
Center of Gravity is the popular — but somewhat controversial —festival around which swirls a busy summer weekend in Kelowna.
Sun, water, booze, music, and — it must be acknowledged, plenty of drugs — define the multi-day event, which draws upwards of 30,000 paying customers to cordoned-off sections of City Park.
Wet Ape, the organizing company, calls CoG — as those in the know call it — the Okanagan’s “biggest adrenaline-fuelled sports and music festival.”
Activities include volleyboarding, wakeboarding, BMX riding and oddball things like playing soccer inside inflatable bubbles.
Like any big, youth-oriented festival, CoG generates complaints about noise and rowdy behaviour. But CoG-related visitor spending at hotels and restaurants is estimated by city officials to top $5 million.
FUNTASTIC
It’s a slo-pitch tournament that attracts hundreds of teams, many returning year after year, to ball diamonds in Vernon, Lumby and Armstrong during the first weekend in July. It’s also a music festival that rocks the stage at the DND grounds for three nights. Funtastic is Canada’s largest slo-pitch tournament and music festival, run by more than 500 volunteers. Teams compete in one of three categories depending on skill. Costumes are encouraged and rewarded as are the teams displaying the best sportsmanship. Goofy games take place during the day while vendors supply a wide variety of food and beverages. Profits from Funtastic are spread to local groups for equipment purchases, sports field development and programs.
LAKE COUNTRY ART WALK
The walk celebrates its milestone 25th anniversary this year.
It all began in 1994 when Holiday Park Resort put on a weekend open house with 80 local artists showing off their works.
By 1999, the event had become so popular that Holiday Park turned it over to Lake Country and the venue became the Community Complex.
It’s still a two-day extravaganza, this year Sept. 8 and 9, but the artist count has ballooned to 300, the works of art number 3,000 and 7,000 people come out to take it all in. There’s also live art demonstrations, kids’ activities, workshops, auction and food and beverages on hand.
All in all, it adds up to the largest arts festival in the B.C. Interior.
THE OKANAGAN WINE FESTIVALS
The Fall Okanagan Wine Festival is the valley’s single biggest annual party.
The fall fest, Sept. 27 to Oct. 7 this year, will attract more than 40,000 locals and tourists who will make 180,000 visits to 250 wineries and 150 events over 11 days.
The fall fest is also home to the British Columbia Wine Awards, which honour the province’s wine of the year.
Last year it was the Terroir Driven Syrah from Sanhill Wines in Kelowna.
The wine festivals society also puts on three other seasonal fests.
The spring shindig from May 2-13 this year, features the Best of Varietals Awards and 122 events up and down the valley.
Summer fest is a single-day blitz at Silver Star Mountain Resort near Vernon.
And the 10-day winter fest at Sun Peaks Resort near Kamloops combines wine with the alpine lifestyle at Canada’s second largest ski area.
PEACHFEST
The Penticton event, now in its 71st year, is Western Canada’s largest free, five-day festival. The events, too many to list, are for all ages, genders, demographics and walks of life.
The Peters Bros. Grande Parade, held on Saturday, is B.C.’s second-largest parade. The main stage includes Juno-winning artists and this year’s free concerts include Kim Mitchell, April Wine, George Canyon and Madeline Merlo. About every third year, the RCAF Snowbirds attend.
As well as the event being free, the festival is run 100 per cent by volunteers. You won’t find a beer garden on the premises because it’s a dry event, intended for families. Those wanting a beer are encouraged to support the many nearby pubs and restaurants.
Of the one dozen major festivals held in Penticton, Peachfest is by far the city’s largest tourist draw year after year. This year’s festival is Aug. 8-12.
PEACH CITY BEACH CRUISE
There are car shows, and there’s the Peach City Beach Cruise, now in its 18th year in Penticton. Close to 800 classic cars line Lakeshore Drive (from the Lakeside Resort to the SS Sicamous), Rotary Park and Lakawana Park for the three-day event.
Admission to Rotary Park is nominal (and the fee for the weekend wristband goes to charity) and includes non-stop music from the 1950s and 60s.
Thousands watch the Lake to Lake parade on the Friday night, where most of the owners participate. Participants come from all over Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, competing in 25 different categories.
Depending on the year, it sometimes falls on the same weekend as the Penticton Elvis Festival, which is an added attraction for visitors.
ROCK THE LAKE
The Rock the Lake music festival has been a sell-out event in Kelowna for the past two years, and it will be back this summer for a third round of energetic outdoor performances.
The Canadian classic rock festival will be held Aug. 10 to 12 outside Prospera Place in downtown Kelowna.
Ian Thomas will begin the festival on Friday, followed by Men Without Hats and Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive fame.
Saturday will feature Northern Pikes, Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts, Sweet and Glass Tiger.
On Sunday, concert-goers will rock out to Doug and the Slugs, The Stampeders, Little River Band and Nazareth.
The vast majority of acts are Canadian. It’s loud, rocking and a chance to relive memories of simpler times.
RUTLAND MAY DAYS
Many festivals wouldn’t exist without the support of taxpayers. The City of Kelowna, for example, runs an entire festivals agency that receives $700,000 in direct funding.
Some municipalities are so desperate to draw big-league, for-profit events that they throw public money at organizers. And then there’s Rutland May Days. It’s an all-volunteer, grassroots based whoop-up that’s been rolling along, more or less continuously, in one form or another, since 1921. It’s been going by its current name, and held on the Victoria Day long weekend, since 1959.
Popular events and performers have included a parade, midway, bands, comedians, food trucks, flea market, bingo, dance, beer garden, and the antics of semi-pro wrestlers.
Each May long weekend, about 15,000 people know the place to be is Rutland.
VERNON WINTER CARNIVAL
For 58 years, Vernon has come alive for 10 days every February, celebrating the largest winter festival in Western Canada.
Giant hot air balloons float over the city. On Silver Star Mountain, teams of carvers shape huge blocks of snow into delicate sculptures while skiers choose between the Over the Hill downhill and cross country events.
Popular adult events include the raucous Suds ‘n Cider, the sedate Paint & Pinot, UnWined (the shopping extravaganza), Irish Pub Night and dinner theatre. There’s music from the bands in the parade to celtic, to classic rock to blues.
Events for children include a poster contest, mother-daughter teas, and scavenger hunts. Woven through all the events are Winter Carnival Royalty, Jopo mascots and Carnival Cops.
Did we overlook your favourite event? Send feedback to: letters@ok.bc.ca.