Balloon Glow at Kin Race Track site kicked off Vernon Winter Carnival Feb. 2 (Vernon Winter Carnival/Facebook photo)

By Liam Verster & Pete McIntyre

64th annual

Winter Carnival opening weekend, Premier takes in Balloon Glow, parade

Feb 3, 2024 | 9:00 AM

It’s the opening weekend of the 64th annual Vernon Winter Carnival.

The highlighted event on Saturday was the parade which featured about 80 floats and had thousands of spectators.

Parade day (Photo credit: Vernon Winter Carnival Society/Facebook)

The Balloon Glow was held Friday night at the Kin Race Track/Kal Tire Place site with hundreds of spectators on hand including B.C. Premier David Eby.

Premier David Eby and MLA Harwinder Sandhu were on hand for the Balloon Glow. (Vernon Winter Carnival photo)

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Kris Fuller, Carnival’s executive director, said having the premier on hand “added an extra layer of prestige to the festivities.”

“The premier was invited to attend this spectacular annual event in March,” Fuller explained. “We sent the invite in March with fingers crossed! We haven’t had a premier honoured by Carnival since 1974.”

Fuller said Eby took in the Balloon Glow Friday, then attended Carnival’s VIP Breakfast and the parade on Saturday.

“The highlight of Premier Eby’s visit was undoubtedly the grand parade, where he joined the procession of floats, performers, and community groups that marched through the heart of Vernon,” Fuller said.

Original story Feb. 2, 2024

The recent weather has had some impact on how the 64th annual Vernon Winter Carnival will kick off.

The Balloon Glow that is usually held at Polson Park will instead be held at Kal Tire Place.

“Everything is still going ahead, but changes always take a little bit more for logistics,” Kris Fuller, executive director of the Vernon Winter Carnival Society, told Vernon Matters.

“We’re encouraging people to leave a little extra time for parking, we do have a school right there and a Safeway parking lot right there.”

The balloons will be on the field at the Kin Race Track lands, but the food trucks, vendors and carnival float will be set up at the Kal Tire Place parking lot, and Fuller encourages people to dress for wet conditions.

The event will run from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, with the balloons only lit up for around half an hour starting at 5 p.m.

“They only carry so much fuel, they only have the ability to glow for so long, and that is the part of the event that is weather dependent,” Fuller said.

Vernon Winter Carnival Society members are ready for the Carnival of Games, the 64th edition of the mid-winter festival Feb. 2-11. (photo credit: VWCS/Facebook)

“Everything else will go ahead no matter what. We will be in the park, we will be eating, we will be listening to the Vernon Girl’s Trumpet Band, the Kinshira Fire Jugglers will be there, our float will be there all lit up. But if it’s raining or windy or stormy, then the balloons can’t light their fires to blow up and billow their canopies because it wouldn’t be safe, so that’s the part that’s weather dependent.”

The weather has also forced the plans for the snow sculpture competition at SilverStar to be revamped as there’s not enough snow to run the event as in year’s past.

“We’re not cancelling it, we’re shifting gears and we are having an ice sculpture series be put up in the village instead,” Fuller said.

“So there will be five sculptures made out of ice, and each one is two blocks of ice [in size] so they will be little bit smaller but will still be really beautiful to look at, and the live carving will still be happening in the [SilverStar] village so that will be wonderful to see.”

As with past years, there will be a people’s choice award for the sculpture contest.

Other than those changes, Fuller said no other events have been altered, though they will watch the weather forecast and make changes if needed.

Looking ahead to the rest of the ten da carnival, the executive director said the parade Saturday should be well attended.

“We always have a theme and this year it’s ‘Games,'” Fuller said.

“We have about 80 entries in our parade and we’re really excited to see what kind of floats people are going to put in and how fabulous they’re going to look.”

Fuller said there will be an award for the float with the most carnival spirit, the Christel Cam Award named after a long-time carnival supporter, which is a public choice award and comes with a $500 prize.

There are a few new events this year that Fuller is also excited to see.

“Something that’s kind of exciting for me this year is the Cocktail Competition. We have 15 local restaurants and bars who are taking part and they’ve invented a cocktail. People can go there and try them and its in honour of Winter Carnival so it’ll have the carnival theme name and maybe a little story behind it or maybe it looks really pretty and has something to do with carnival,” Fuller explained.

“Another new one that’s really fun is in our Family Fun Park next Saturday (Feb. 10). We have a Canine Costume Party. That is at 12:30 [p.m.] at the Family Fun Park which is at Kal Tire Place arena.”

The Snowglobe Concert is set for Saturday, Feb. 3, at the Vernon Rec Centre Auditorium.

The concert, featuring The Dirt Road Kings and Cod Gone Wild, will be smaller than the inaugural Snowglobe concert held at Kal Tire Place in 2023, but Fuller said it should still be a good show.

“It’ll be a real boot-stomper, lots of fun. Those two bands, they’re real crowd pleasers. Cod Gone Wild has a little Celtic flair and The Dirt Road Kings are an amazing rock/country cover band,” Fuller said.

“It’s going to be so much fun for everybody. I think last year was tons of fun for people, people really enjoyed it and it was really exciting to be part of a big arena show, and this year, it’s a little bit of a smaller venue, but it still holds 900 people so it’s going to be a rocking good party.”

She told Vernon Matters that other events have started selling out, and is encouraged by the interest and excitement in the community.

This is Fuller’s first year as the executive director, and she said it has been exciting but busy.

“There’s a lot to manage and a lot to do. I’m having a great time, I’ve got so many great volunteers and crew around me, I really love it,” Fuller said just before she rushed away to attend to more preparations.

“Even with the little changes, the challenges, I feel like I’m just a person that’s like ‘We just go forward positively and do our best and shift and go with it and make it still be a wonderful time for our community.'”

The Vernon Winter Carnival runs from Feb. 2 to 11, with the schedule of all 138 events here.