The last time I waded into the shark-infested waters of local festival planning, it was to endorse Gibsons Mayor Bill Beamish’s semi-tongue-in-cheek suggestion that if there wasn’t going to be a Sea Cavalcade or similar big celebration in the town last summer, we could “just have a day where we give out clown noses and everybody walks around town laughing at each other.”
Clown Nose Day never got the traction it deserved as a Sea Cavalcade substitute, but the Gibsons Lantern Festival sure did, with lots of enthusiastic participants at the lantern-making sessions and a big crowd for the evening procession around the harbour. It was, for a first-time event that came together quickly, a pretty big success.
When Mayor Beamish floated his clown nose trial balloon, he finished up by saying, “and then we can have fireworks,” but the fireworks didn’t happen last summer either.
A high wildfire hazard was one reason, and the whole discussion around Sea Cavalcade’s future made it pretty clear that fireworks are as potentially divisive in the Town of Gibsons as the most contentious zoning proposals, and are argued about with a vehemence to match.
Now, as we reported this week, a new organizing committee is hard at work to bring back Sea Cavalcade for 2020 and the head of that committee, Phill Murray, told me that after an initial brainstorming session with potential volunteers and organizers, it became pretty obvious that one event people want to see return in 2020 is the fireworks.
Last year Gibsons council offered $7,600 in funding to the Lantern Festival, which it drew from the $16,000 that had originally been set aside in the 2019 budget for the Sea Cavalcade fireworks ($5,000 from that basket was also used to support a “thank you” concert staged by the Sea Cavalcade Society).
I’d hate to see the potential return of Sea Cavalcade eclipse the Lantern Festival, or worse, for the two events to be seen as rivals for the support of council, or much, much worse, for fireworks to become the factor that decides who gets that support.
I’m not a diplomat, but I get to play one in the newspaper, and as a self-appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Gumboot Nation, I’m going to suggest that it’s never too early for Gibsons residents and their council to start thinking about how best to support the return of Sea Cavalcade and the continuation of the Lantern Festival.
Of course, if they can find a way to do it all while wearing clown noses, that would be cool too.
