Crowd of 500,000 celebrates Vaisakhi in Surrey

The Vancouver Vaisakhi Parade and Surrey Vaisakhi Parade both celebrate Vaisakhi Day, which marks the Punjabi New Year in

April every year. Surrey’s Vaisakhi parade broke attendance records Saturday, drawing a crowd of almost 500,000 people, including visitors from all over the world. Beginning before 9 a.m., 20 floats moved slowly through Newton, starting and ending at the Gudwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar temple late in the afternoon. The sunshine brought huge crowds to the streets, where families and businesses set up tents to offer free food and stages with various entertainment. “I’m shocked at the numbers,” said organizer Moninder Singh. “It has turned into an international event. People have heard about it and they want to be here.” Buses of people from Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle and even California travelled to Surrey to celebrate. The multicultural crowd — which almost exceeded the population of Surrey — included visitors from around the world, as well as politicians of all stripes. For the first time, the parade was opened by the Kwantlen First Nation, which welcomed the event on its unceded territory, said Singh, adding he hopes the welcome will become a yearly tradition. In the afternoon, the crowds continued to grow, with traffic backed-up on roads leading into the area. Cellphone service was patchy likely because of the number of people at the event. Surrey RCMP reminded people to have a plan to reunite with lost children, explaining that in the past, officers have responded to dozens of incidents of missing children and elderly people. Source:vancouversun.com/