Things were quieter than expected at the Youbou Community Association’s West of Sunfest celebration on Saturday, although organizers say they’ll still host a similar event next year.
The events that day included a pancake breakfast, craft fair, live music, food and later a community dance. All the activities were hosted at the community hall and Youbou Lanes was also open to any interested bowlers.
Kim Ring, spokeswoman for the YCA, said there was great turnout from community members and there was also a lot of volunteer support. She said the pancake breakfast, for example, which was hosted by the Youbou Community of Peace, was very popular and even ran out of sausages. However, the bulk of the anticipated guests never materialized.
“We expected we would have numbers from Sunfest and we didn’t get them,” said Ring. “We were led to believe there would be buses coming from Sunfest with Sunfesters. We had actually made arrangements for where they were going to drop off people, and that didn’t happen.”
She said vendors at the craft fair were disappointed with turnout, and it’s not yet clear to the YCA whether they will include a similar fair in next year’s activities.
As a community event, rather than a Sunfest welcoming event, Ring said it was great.
“It was really fun to have something fun in Youbou. The music was great, the food was great. Like I say we had volunteers, people I’d never even seen before in Youbou, that came out and spent the whole day with us. So that part was really positive.”
Sunfest did donate one of its performers to the West of Sunfest celebration. Victoria-based Whitford Bronco came and played a set during the afternoon’s musical selection.
“They were very, very talented,” said Ring. “They really were the highlight of our musical showcase and we have a lot of really good musicians anyway.”
Emmalee Brunt, public relationship and marketing manager for Sunfest, said there had been a miscommunication between the festival and organizers in Youbou.
“In our contract with them it was just a paid shuttle service. They were hoping it was free, but unfortunately that was never agreed upon,” she said. “Our shuttles to Lake Cowichan and Youbou are just kind of doing a circular loop. We were doing it as required. I think next year trying to encourage people to go into the towns would be helpful. But we tried this year.”
