An American in Vancouver on Canada Day

[NE John]

Hello Canadian friends!

We decided to spend a couple days after our cruise to be part of the happenings of Canada Day in Vancouver. 
Are many things closed? Celebrations? Fireworks? Ceremonies?
Any info would be appreciated. 

[Urban trekker]

Most businesses will be opened - holidays hours. There will be entertainment and lots of it at Canada Place and Jack Poole Plaza a short distance away. 

There has not been fireworks downtown since pre-Covid as no one seems to want to put up the money.

There has been in the past a citizenship ceremony at Canada Place as I have been a volunteer at that but I am pretty sure it was held somewhere else last year.

If the weather is nice and sunny there will likely be over 100,000 people over the course of day partaking in the various events. I will check out the Canada Place and Port of Vancouver web sites to see if anything is listed yet.

The celebration at Canada Place is reportedly the largest outside of the nation's capital.

Hope this helps - I will be volunteering there again this year - just don't know my actual role yet but it will likely be manning one of the info booths.

Dennis

[Milhouse]

There's also a lot of regional celebrations with music, entertainment, and displays. If you are staying downtown, the event around Canada Place is definitely the biggest and easiest.  However, if you are inclined to check out a few within reasonable distance, there should also be events taking place on Granville Island and the Shipyards area just across the inlet.  

 

Yep, unfortunately, many of the fireworks displays (and parades) have been cancelled due to funding.  There are still fireworks (and parades) happening at some of the regional events but probably not practical for you to go to.  

There was one year back in the day, when we went to four parades across town which was pretty fun.

[martincath]

Yup, just keep your eyes peeled for events - Canada Place itself always gives a pretty detailed breakdown of performers, usually at least a couple of stages involved, face-painting for kiddies and whatnot. The parade is almost certainly not coming back this year - we'd have heard something about it by now if anyone was looking to get it running - but something fireworksy, or maybe a drone show, might happen after dark: lessons have been learned about operational frequencies since the last time drones failed to deploy!

 

If the lying <insert preferred pejorative here> running Port of Vancouver claim it's too pricey again despite record profits, pretty much guaranteed at least one of our suburban sibling cities will step up and put on a firework show you could take transit to - New Westminster for example is on SkyTrain and has been really pushing themselves as a tourist destination lately (a guy on Jeopardy failed to win the prize of a free trip, so they gave him one anyway and their social media people have been really trying to keep that momentum going!), they don't do fireworks every year but they have had them in the past.

 

Steveston in Richmond, Cloverdale in Surrey, Port Coquitlam - there are several places in the ballpark 90mins by transit range who reliably put on fireworks even when Vancouver cheaps out, but they're all honestly much easier to visit by car. Steveston even does a parade, it's a whole day themed around salmon annually for those guys - and you could take a whalewatching trip in the afternoon to fill time between parade and dinner? If you did decide on a car, White Rock and Langley also become plausible visits.

 

Just google fireworks and canada day - as we get nearer, all the local news outlets and popular bloggers will produce their usual 'what is happening where and when around the Lower Mainland on Canada Day', and a quick search for directions between those locations and your hotel will give you an idea of the time needed to get to the shows by transit or driving.