Victoria Day parade cancelled again due to pandemic
The Victoria Day Parade, the city’s largest annual parade, has been postponed for yet another year due to safety concerns surrounding COVID-19.
The Greater Victoria Festival Society, which hosts the annual event, has also ruled out a plan to film and broadcast a smaller version of the parade incorporating videos supplied by the marching bands that typically take part.
The plan now is for CHEK TV to air a montage of clips from previous years, with some elements filmed in 2021.
“Our focus is on keeping our community safe,” said Kelly Kurta, the society’s executive director. “Current provincial health orders and rising case counts make it impossible to hold any type of large event, even if it is outdoors.”
The Victoria Day Parade, which always takes place on the Sunday of the Victoria Day long weekend in May, was held every year for 122 years — until last year. Kurta points out that the parade, which can draw up to 100,000 spectators lining Douglas Street, didn’t stop during the Spanish Flu pandemic or the world wars.
Kurta said last year that 110 groups had registered for the parade, including marching bands from B.C. and the United States. Three thousand people were expected to march and ride floats in the parade.
The society has lost more than $100,000 in revenue from funding, sponsorships, grants and parade application and vendor fees in the past year, said Kurta, who has the only paid position in the organization.
The society had money in the bank at this time last year and decided to forgo the federal funding grants being offered.
“We felt that others may have needed it more than we did,” said Kurta, who said she took a significant cut in pay.
When the society decided they needed support, the funding had run out or the programs had been closed. It is now reaching out to local municipalities for support.
“If they would contribute, maybe $1,000 each, it would go a long way in helping us weather the storm,” she said. “With no events, small or large, inside or outside, our ability to secure funding and sponsorship has been removed.”
In the meantime, the society is developing a membership program in order to apply for gaming grants.
The society is optimistic it will be able to hold its two other major events of the year: Wicked Victoria during Halloween and the Santa Claus parade on Nov. 27.
Kurta is also planning to put together a Victory Parade once the pandemic is declared over.
“We are confident we could put something together with a very short turnaround that would look like a smaller version of the Victoria Day Parade,” she said. “Just like how we honour the armed forces at every Victoria Day parade, we will have front-line workers leading the parade for their part in seeing us through this pandemic.”