Crowds gathered for Music in the Park, which begins on Canada Day/via Tourism Kamloops
The City of Kamloops has decided to ‘roll the dice’ this year when it comes to the timing of events — as well as the amount of people — who are going to end up at Riverside Park downtown to help mark Canada’s 159th birthday Wednesday.
Already committed to showing each match on a big screen to those who gather on the grass around the band shell, the City has decided it can also massage this year’s World Cup action into the gaps between the traditional Canada Day events at the Park.
It would seem the matches would fit in quite well — provided everything goes to plan, including the weather, which could throw a wrench into all of the City’s best-laid plans.
“Immediately following the England and Democratic Republic of Congo match is when the Canada Day — normal — festivities will start,” said Andrew Smeaton, Business Operations & Events Supervisor for the City of Kamloops. “As long as the game is decided in regular time, then the festivities will start on time.”
“Otherwise, there might be a little bit of a delay or a pause before the Canada Day opening ceremonies start,” conceded Smeaton.
At issue is the narrow time frame Smeaton and the City are working with.
The traditional pancake breakfast put on by the Lions Club will start around 7am.
That will run for around 3 hours — and will still be on as England and the DR Congo take to the pitch at 9am
While England is heavily favored to win the match, with the surprise ouster of Germany and the Netherlands over the past couple of days, the 2 hour window for the match to finish is already cutting the planned 11am start to the Canada Day celebrations razor thin.
Weather forecast for the day in Kamloops over Canada Day, which suggest an early chance of showers [blue], and possible early-afternoon thundershower activity from 1 to 4pm, then clear skies mostly beyond that into the evening/via Windy.com
However, the forecast is calling for the possibility of some early afternoon lightening, which could impact the daytime activities.
But if the weather does hold, and there are to be added bodies in the area, Smeaton says the City is prepared with additional staff to deal with any issues of crowd management, and says extra toilet facilities have also been set up to make sure there’s plenty of access to washrooms.
Smeaton says ultimately, the additional bodies on the grass next to the Bandshell might round out the event nicely this year.
“The Bandshell grass area can be… underutilized on some Canada Days,” noted Smeaton. “If anything, the Bandshell has been ‘less programmed’ in the last couple of years, but this will kind of fill out that programming.”
A heads up for World Cup fans accustomed to taking their own alcoholic beverages down to the matches.
Because this is a ‘special event’ day, the City is providing a beer garden, and thus is not allowing outside alcohol into the Park through the day.
Once the Americans and Bosnia-Herzegovina wrap their match, which gets going at 5pm — which follows Senegal vs. Belgium at 1pm — it’s the launch of Music in the Park for this summer.
Weather permitting, a fireworks display is set to close out the evening.
