Vancouver hosting biggest Canada 150 celebrations outside Ottawa

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s being called the biggest celebration outside of our nation’s capital. Canada Day at Canada Place today is expected to draw close to 400,000 people to downtown Vancouver.

“On a regular year, when it’s not the 150th birthday of Canada, we welcome about 250,000 people during the day. So we are expecting to see at least a 50 per cent increase on that,” says Gillian Benke with the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority.

“We are the largest celebration outside of our nation’s capital.”

Benke shares what you can expect in and around Canada Place today.

“We have five stages for performances, we have a citizenship ceremony where we are welcoming 150 new Canadians, we have our headliner Sam Roberts Band. It’s just going to be a fantastic day. We have a kids zone, a Canadian forces zone.”

She adds you won’t just see people wearing red and white. You’ll also see many people in uniform.

“We just increased the number of guards as well as the Vancouver police.”

And don’t forget about the fireworks tonight. They’ll light up the sky along the waterfront starting at 10:30 p.m.

Benke adds more celebrations are planned tomorrow, including the Canada 150 parade through downtown Vancouver.

Two celebrations for Burnaby

2017 is also a milestone year for Burnaby.

Mayor Derek Corrigan says people have extra reason to celebrate in his city.

“Remember, that not only is it Canada’s 150th birthday, but it’s Burnaby’s 125th birthday this year, so we’re celebrating 125 years.”

He says events are planned at the new Edmonds Community Centre, as well the Burnaby Village Museum’s heritage festival, but the biggest crowd will probably be at Swangard Stadium after 5 p.m.

“Where we have performances by artists and a big display of fireworks later on in the evening.”

The headlining act for the free concert is former BareNaked Ladies singer Steven Page and the fireworks are set for 10 p.m.