B.C. Day drone show hosted by Nanaimo-Lantzville MLA

B.C. Day drone show hosted by Nanaimo-Lantzville MLA

Published 5:30 am Friday, July 31, 2026

On B.C. Day, residents can attend a free community barbecue, movie and drone show to celebrate, hosted by Nanaimo-Lantzville MLA George Anderson.

Falling on Monday, Aug. 3, community members can go to McGirr Elemental School from 6-11 p.m. for a barbecue, a screening of Pixar’s Coco (2017) once it turns dark, then end the night watching a drone show.

Community groups will be present with information tables, providing an opportunity to connect with local organizations.

Anderson said the primary intention is to build community and to bring people together.

“This year we’re currently at about 17 groups that have agreed to participate,” Anderson said.

“The drone show is a nice add-on, but for me the central focus is on building community.”

The drone show will be the second ever public drone show in the city, following the first on Canada Day at Maffeo Sutton Park earlier this year.

For Anderson, B.C. Day is about “celebrating the great province that we live in and the great people that live here.”

“My hope is that it ends up being an event which we just get to celebrate the community and bring people together and celebrate the place we call home,” Anderson said.

“We should be celebrating British Columbia, not just for its landscapes, I would say, but in a way that people show up for one another.”

People can rsvp online through www.eventbrite.ca.

Taking place on the first Monday of August, B.C. Day was first declared a holiday by Attorney General Alex Macdonald in 1974, stating that “it is considered to be right and proper to recognize in each year the pioneers who built the Colony of British Columbia into the great province that it is today.”

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