The Greater Victoria Festival Society (GVFS) is taking home some new hardware after winning a national award for its 125th annual Victoria Day Festival Weekend, which took place last year.
On Wednesday night, the GVFS won gold in the Canadian Event Awards’ Best Market/Fair or Festival category.
It was facing other heavy hitters like the Invictus Games in Vancouver.
“There were nine or 10 people in our category and one of them was Invictus,” said Kelly Kurta, executive director of the GVFS. “We thought we didn’t have a chance.”
Kurta says the Victoria group was facing some stiff competition, with many of the other events having budgets of $250,000 or more.
“One of the categories are best wedding over a million dollars, best corporate event over a million dollars, so it’s huge,” she said.
For the category that the GVFS won, judges were looking for things like appeal, sustainability, vendor engagement, attendee interaction, risk management and more.
Kurta says she’s grateful to everyone in the society who helped make the 125th Victoria Day Festival Weekend a success.
“It feels incredible. We put in a lot of hard work and we’re a small team and we’re super committed to make this happen, and we have such a small budget,” she said. “Competing with the big guys and big guns in Toronto is huge.”
This year’s Victoria Day Parade is planned for May 18, and CHEK will be broadcasting and livestreaming the event.
The Thrifty Foods 126th Victoria Day Parade will be travelling a different route this year, starting near the B.C. legislature and heading up Government Street then Wharf Street before looping back around.
Previously, the parade departed from the Mayfair mall area and came into the Inner Harbour.
Kurta says this year’s parade will be scaled down compared to last year’s milestone anniversary event – and because the new route and new safety requirements are presenting budget and logistics challenges.
“I’m positive, I love the parade weekend, it’s one of my favourite weekends, but I guess I’m saddened with the change in the route,” she said.
Rewatch the 125th annual Victoria Day Parade here and below.
