The entire, five-week Parksville Beach Festival is a kid-friendly event. But kids will get their own special day in the sun this weekend as the 2017 festival wraps up at Parksville’s Community Park.
The annual KidFest takes place Sunday, Aug. 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with dozens of interactive craft and activity tables, entertainers, bounce-a-rama structures and food and information vendors.
KidFest is held on the final day of the Beach Festival, which features nearly two dozen sculptures in the Quality Foods Sand Sculpting Competition and Exhibition near the boardwalk gazebo.
On Saturday night, Aug. 19, the Quality Foods Festival of Lights fireworks show will take place at dusk. Immediately afterward, the sand sculpting exhibition will be open with special night lighting. It is the first year the exhibition has illuminated the sculptures for night viewing.
Meanwhile, Beach Festival organizers announced attendance for this year’s event has been strong and could approach or match last year’s record turnout.
Last weekend, the festival surpassed 100,000 visitors and began the week at 107,007 visitors since opening day, July 14.
“We won’t reach the 150,000 that we set out to do but we are on track to reach around the same numbers as last year if we finish with a strong week,” BeachFest committee member Wendy Sears said in a written release. “Last year was a record at 133,430.”
The sandsculpting exhibition is open to the public with a suggested donation of $3, which gives each entrant a token to vote on the People’s Choice Award winner. The money is used to give back to volunteer and social support groups in the community, and Sears said the Beach Festival last year gave back $60,000 to its volunteer gate ambassadors for their work locally.
“It would be great to be able to share that amount again, or possibly even more,” said Sears. “As an added incentive, we will be giving away a Tigh-Na-Mara Grotto Spa Signature Spa package to the 125,000th person through the gate. Who knows? It could be you!”
Find out more about Beach Festival 2017 at www.facebook.com/ParksvilleBeachFestival or on Twitter, @parksvillebeachfest.
— NEWS Staff/ BeachFest committee submission