This kind of success doesn’t happen organically.
After hovering in the 90,000 range in recent years, Beachfest attendance figures topped 100,000 this year. It was 104,427 to be exact, a record for the Quality Foods Canadian Open Sand Sculpting Competition and Exhibition.
The weather has been fantastic, which hasn’t hurt. The sculptures were cool this year — they are cool every year, but the Heroes and Villians theme seemed to capture the imagination of residents and visitors alike.
Still, even with all that working in its favour, this event is not a success without some key players, people and organizations we salute today in this space.
First, the Beachfest organizing committee. Led superbly by Cheryl Dill, this group of volunteers are the lifeblood of the festival. Yes, those who craft the sculptures are the talent, but they don’t even get here without the work of this committee.
Most of the members of this committee lead busy lives, with family and work consuming most of their time. How they find the time for countless meetings — year round, it should be noted — is beyond us. We tip our sand-crusted hats to Dill and these selfless community supporters.
Event manager Trish Smith has a difficult job. She does it well every year and she should be proud of the record attendance figure in 2015.
Dill, Smith and the committee can’t do it alone. Enter dozens of volunteers from a number of community groups. The Beachfest Society has provided about $350,000 to these groups since 1999. It’s not like these organizations just party with that money — they use it for the good works they do in our region. So, the volunteers from these community groups not only provide a valuable service for the festival, they use the fruits of that service to do more good deeds in Parksville Qualicum Beach. Talk about a total win-win.
Then there’s the title sponsor, Quality Foods. We can’t imagine how many sponsorship requests this company receives on a weekly basis, but it seems to answer the bell time and time again. The owners of this growing company are local people — clearly they care.
Congratulations to everyone involved in the 2015 festival. Think you can top 105,000 next year?
— Editorial by John Harding
