Westside Daze moving to make room for midway

Westside Daze is on the move After years of including Canada Day celebrations in the festivities, the Westside’s annual festival is moving to the second weekend in July. This year the free family festival will run July 12-14. The move is in an effort to be able to once again offer a midway, something the festival has been unable to do since 2016 after Irwin “Bingo” Hauser, the founder of West Coast Amusements and owner of the division that came to Westside Daze, died. The Westside Celebration Society, the group of volunteers that puts on Westside Daze, were unable to persuade any other amusement companies to come to West Kelowna for Canada Day as they were all booked. The society is currently working with an amusement company to come for the second weekend of July. While plans might not be Ànalized in time for this year’s festival, the midway will be at Westside Daze in 2020. Because Westside Daze always centred around Canada Day, many people couldn’t attend because they were busy with other Canada Day events. With the move, Westside Daze becomes its own entity. “It’s actually a great move,” said Tina Bisson with the Westside Celebration Society. The society will still be looking after the Canada Day celebration July 1 with the legendary giant Canada Day cake and entertainment planned for Memorial Park all day long. Westside Daze will now run from Friday to Sunday. Other changes this year include moving the Westside Daze vendor’s market from the sweltering heat of the day to a night market like the Richmond Night Market. People will still be able to enjoy Westside Daze popular favourites such as the parade Saturday morning, the Kids’ Fair Saturday afternoon and the Show N Shine Sunday as well as entertainment all three days. It’s a big job to put on Westside Daze and the Westside Celebration Society is looking for volunteers to help, particularly with the parade and the show and shine. If you are interested in helping out with West Kelowna’s signature festival, email westsidedaze@gmail.com.

BARB AGUIAR/Westside Weekly Above: West Kelowna youth ambassadors Ryan Scott, Joy Romanchuk, Trinity Tracy and Brooklyn Schell hand out Canada Day cake during last year’s Canada Day festivities. Left: Kids engage in a water fight with West Kelowna Fire Rescue in the Wet Zone portion of the Westside Daze parade. The popular parade will continue.