Can you host a city-wide party online?
That’s the question the city of Coquitlam is looking to answer as it moves to scrap its massive annual Canada Day celebrations in favour of a fully virtual event.
“These are uncharted waters for all of us,” said Kathleen Vincent, communications manager for the city.
Instead of hosting the single-day celebrations at Lafarge Lake — where live music food trucks and a fireworks display bring out roughly 70,000 annual merrymakers — a series of performances, demonstrations and likely take-out food will be beamed and delivered to the porches, patios and front doors of the city’s residents.
Having delayed any decision on how it would manage social distancing at its largest public gathering of the year, the city announced the shift to virtual celebrations Friday, May 8, two days after Premier John Horgan announced a phased-in approach to reducing restrictions and re-opening the province’s economy.
The re-jigged civic events are expected to stretch into the fall, following Horgan’s announcement that a ban on gatherings of 50 people or more would be extended until the end of the year.
The Coquitlam Celebrates Canada Day celebration is now in its 12th year, and many of the events stalwarts will continue. According to the city, the revelry will begin at noon on July 1 and open with the singing of ‘O Canada.’ That will be followed by live, family-friendly concerns, multicultural performances, online drop-in activities, magic shows and contests.
Everything will be presented in a centralized virtual hub, though exactly what that is and what it will look like is still being ironed out as the city tests various platforms.
But the city also wants members of the community to drive what the celebrations will look like, and so is looking for businesses, community organizations and performers to pitch ideas and contributions. Businesses and organizations will be offered promotional spots and be paid to provide content, according to a written statement from the city.
“It could be a local restaurant doing a food demo with its most popular items and then doing take-out services,” said Terra Dickinson, community and cultural events coordinator for the city.
Dickinson said the city is bringing in IT and broadcast experts to help put on the show and is hoping to bring on videographers to help individuals and organizations work through the technical aspects of recording their performances or demos.
“As a community, we’ve all become more familiar with new technology to engage and celebrate with one another. This is taking that one step further,” she said.
Moving to a virtual celebration also means the city is hoping to save money on such expenses as security, road closures and basic things like tents, chairs, tables and recycling. Local businesses and organizations will be offered promotional spots and be paid to provide content.
More details will be sorted out in the coming weeks, and once everything is worked out, a full schedule will be posted at www.coquitlam.ca/canadaday.
Anyone interested in pitching ideas can submit their proposal here.
It’s not just the Canada Day celebrations that are getting a virtual makeover.
The city’s Summer Concert series will also be moved fully online, but has been extended from three live Friday night shows to 10. Running from June to September, the series will showcase local artists who will be paid to perform. You can find information here: www.coquitlam.ca/summerconcerts.
The fifth annual Kaleidoscope Arts Festival, which is usually held in August, is also in the process of being significantly re-imagined to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be combined with Culture Days and run from Sept. 25 to 27.
The city said it moved the date to offer a chance of more “physically distant, in-person opportunities to experience the arts in outdoor locations around the community,” according to a press release.
“In order to keep the event physically distant and safe, we’ll take it out into the community this year,” added Dickinson.
With interactive public art displays throughout the city, the idea is to give each family unit the ability to tour the separate locations by car, bike or foot.
The Kaleidoscope/Culture Days event will be the first transition to a physical space for a civic event since the pandemic began, though it will be offered in a decentralized way to avoid large crowds.
With the city still in the early stages of planning the combined event, locations haven’t been finalized.
One thing that could be in the mix: complementary rooftop concerts.
