Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - The streets of Campbell River have opened up with a series of free, family-friendly events and entertainment that will continue until September.
“We think that this is a great opportunity. Hopefully COVID is starting to leave us and we have the ability to return to a new normal. This whole set of opportunities with the downtown core is meant to bring us out of what we've been experiencing over the last couple of years in reduced ability to program and to get out and interact and socialize. This is really on the flip side of it. We want to be able to blow the lid off of this and get everybody downtown and enjoying what Campbell River has done. Campbell River has a lot to offer both the residents in the surrounding area and visitors to it,“explained Robin Mitchell, the city’s Manager of Recreation and Culture
“These programs and the opportunities with businesses and the various partnerships that Royce and Karen and Linda have set up, in order for us to be able to run all of these events downtown over the next three months are going to be absolutely mind-blowing.”
Karen Chappell, Adult and Community Special Events programmer, added, “We are offering a ton of stuff this summer. We have what is called our Campbell River Live Streets, which has six major events that happen every Wednesday evening in the downtown core, we shut the street and we offer a large event.”
This interview took place last Thursday. ‘Go by Bike Week’ is now over, but it is an example of the kind of event Campbell River is hosting. The associated activities included:
Thursday - a celebration station at Active Living Physiotherapy in Larwood Plaza. (bike maintenance, Track Stand competitions).
Friday - celebration station from &-8:30 AM at Seymour Pacific Developments (breakfast)
Saturday - Bike Swap at Spirit Square from noon to 4PM. All kids bikes sold for $30. Adult bikes for $60 and premium bikes for $100. Opportunity to test drive e-bikes.
Checking the community calendar on the City of Campbell River website, the next special events are both scheduled for Sunday, June 26: Greenways Loop Day and the Campbell River Buskers Festival.
School gets out the following Wednesday, June 29, after which this calendar will be bursting with activities. These include:
- Battle of the Brushes on July 20, 2022
- an Evening Street Market,
- Chalk Art Festival,
- Salsa & Latin Night,
- Music in the Night
- and Rockin' River Country Stomp.
“One of our big headliners this summer, which I'm personally really excited about is our finale of the summer for our large live streets. And we have Jesse Roper coming and he's a massive draw on Vancouver island. So we're, we had to really bump up our numbers for licensing and everything for that event,” said Chappell.
There are also a lot of activities taking place every week:
- Concerts in Spirit Square, every Tuesday at noon and Thursdays at 7 PM.
- The Farmer's Market, Sundays from 10 am till 2:00 PM, in Shopper’s Row until September 11th.
- Lots of smaller events like yoga classes, in-line dance classes, and other daily activities
