Penticton will be paying homage to the Province of British Columbia with Family Fun Day – an all-day celebration at Gyro Park for BC Day on Aug. 3.
The event is being held by the Downtown Penticton Association (DPA) for the third year.
“BC Day is a really good time for families, as tourists and residents,” said Kerri Milton, executive director at the DPA. “It’s for families to come down to the park as a community, enjoy free entertainment and just have a really fun day that they can enjoy and be part of.”
She said that new for this year will be giant bouncy castles on the 100 block of Main Street, which was adopted after achieving similar success during Canada Day celebrations.
“We got some big ones coming,” she said.
There will also be a dry waterslide – “it’s a big giant slide but you don’t need water to have it.”
A large cake bearing the provincial flag will be cut by dignitaries from throughout the community five minutes after noon. There will also be free henna, face painting and crafts. And the stage will be offering entertainment throughout of the event.
“We planned activities that will have people up and moving and be participatory,” Milton said. “Rumble 100 is the headliner. Anytime they play everybody wants to get up and dance and we want people to do that in the afternoon to have a really good ending to the day.”
To kick it off in high gear, the event will begin with a 30-minute interactive zumba workout, which will be followed by a high-energy percussion show by Nankama and Bovenzi Family Drum and Dance.
Other entertainment includes musical guests K.A.S.P., Her Brothers and Brent Taylor. The Bahiti Belly Dancers will be performing, as well as Milton’s favourite, the Team Extreme strongman display.
“They are so phenomenal – they come and do these extraordinary feats of strength and determination and they always get the crowd going.”
Also running throughout Family Fun Day will be a large vendor market.
“All different kinds of things will be featured; ethnic foods to hot dogs to mini donuts to lemonade – everything you can think of will be there.”
The event will be hosted by Dennis Walker from SO Country Radio, and Andy’s Animal Acres will be bringing some of the family on site for a petting zoo.
Milton said that organizers were able to be more creative in planning the event this year thanks to a sponsorship from Boyd Autobody and Glass.
Zumba, along with the vendors and kids’ activities, will kick off the event at 9:30 a.m. It runs until 6 p.m. with events favouring younger families scheduled for earlier in the day. To learn more specific times, visit the events calendar at penticton.ca.
“Everybody should come and enjoy BC Day Family Party in the Park – it’s good for all ages.”
