Activities and surprises planned for 30th Sunshine Festival

Jun 15, 2024 | 6:30 AM

Update

The 30th annual Sunshine Festival is on for today (June 15) with vendors, food, music, activities and free parking on 30th Avenue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More activities and surprises planned for 30th Sunshine Festival
June 10, 2024

The 30th annual Sunshine Festival is set for downtown Vernon this weekend and will feature some additions to celebrate the milestone year.

Six blocks of 30th Avenue, from the 2900-block where the Towne Theatre is located, to outside Nature’s Fare in the 3400-block, will be closed to vehicles, for the celebration on Saturday, June 15.

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Peter Kaz, events and marketing manager of the Downtown Vernon Association (DVA), said it will have more vendors, games and activities than previous years.

“The 2900-block is the ‘Kid Zone. It will [have] a Kid’s Tent with kid’s entertainers from dancing, learning how to make balloon animals, a juggler, an illusionist. There will also be a reptile show, and there will be games and activities there,” Kaz told Vernon Matters, adding there will also be food vendors at the kid’s end, along with a large inflatable obstacle course and maze.

“Then, at the complete opposite end, which will be in front of Nature’s Fare, that half-block will be blocked off, and that’s where the Food Zone is going to be and the main stage. So we’ll have food trucks there, we’ll have tables for people to sit and eat, there will be a large tent for the stage and there will be another tent for the audience where they can sit and watch in the stage.”

Between the Food and Kid’s Zones will be a number of activities, games, vendors, music and more.

Kaz added there will be a number of surprises throughout the day, saying people should keep their eyes on the sky as well as at street-level during the celebrations.

Street parking will be free in the downtown core, with Kaz reminding people that parking is free every Saturday at the downtown parkade, at the city lot on 31st Ave. across from Eatology, and in select areas of the lot at the library.

The DVA representative noted this event has a positive economic impact for Vernon.

“First of all, because of the time frame that it is, in the middle of June when we’re starting to see tourists already show up, in the past we’ve had anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 people show up,” Kaz commented.

“And we know there are a lot of tourists that are in that group that end up coming to the Sunshine Festival and they obviously get to wander up and down the streets and the side streets and see what we have to offer,” Kaz explained.

Kaz said it’s a chance for visitors to get to know more about the businesses.

“They can walk up and down the sidewalk and do some extra shopping. There’s a lot of people that will see something that they never knew existed, and they might not pop into that store that day, but a week or a month later when they need a new pair of jeans, or they need a speaker for their home system, or whatever it might be, they’re like ‘Oh yeah, I remember seeing that during the Sunshine Festival in downtown Vernon, I should go there.’ So it’s not just about that day, it’s the future implications as well.”

The Sunshine Festival will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 15.

by Liam Verster

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