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Event celebrates Nanaimo’s heritage

Nanaimo Heritage Days takes place on May 21
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Peter Urquhart, organizer of Nanaimo Heritage Days, shows off Nanaimo-themed t-shirts, which will be available for purchase during the heritage days event on May 21 on Commercial Street. (NICHOLAS PESCOD/NEWS BULLETIN)

A tradition that is older than Canada will take place this weekend in the Harbour City.

Nanaimo Heritage Days will take place in downtown Nanaimo on Sunday (May 21). The day will be filled with family activities, live music and a parade beginning at 1 p.m.

Peter Urquhart, event organizer and member of the Nanaimo Heritage Days Society, said there are 49 confirmed entries in the parade this year, which will pay tribute to the city’s past.

“It’s probably going to be something a lot different than what you’ve seen in Nanaimo before,” he said. “The previous ones have been great but this year we really wanted to dig in to what heritage really means for Nanaimo.”

The parade route begins near Cavan Street and Victoria Road and will travel along Victoria Crescent, Commercial Street and Front Street, ending at Comox Road.

Urquhart said there will be classic cars and participants wearing retro clothing in the parade. He said awards will be given out after the parade as well and that people can expect to see larger floats than normal this year.

“I think it is going to be a little larger than some of the parades Nanaimo has seen. When you think you see 49, you might think that is a lot or you might not think that is a lot. But those aren’t 49 standard 20-foot floats. We’ve got some entries that are 200-feet long,” he said. “[Vancouer Island University], for example, is putting in a huge entry.”

There will also be plenty of family activities such as live music, face painting, train rides and crafts at Diana Krall Plaza and Maffeo Sutton Park between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

“We’ve got the electric swing, crossbow, slides, jungle gym – all that type of stuff,” Urquhart said. “Both areas are jam-packed and we’ve got food at both areas.”

This is the first year that Urquhart, who has never organized an event of this scale before, has organized the May long weekend celebration, which dates back to 1863.

Urquhart, a software developer, was asked to organize the Heritage Days as part of a newly formed group called the Nanaimo Heritage Society back in March. He said the short time frame and the event’s long-running history was added pressure.

“It’s been happening for over 152 years so there was a lot of pressure,” he said. “It was really short time frame. There has been a heck of a lot of deadlines. It has been fast paced the whole time.”

He said without the support from volunteers, the parade wouldn’t have been possible.

“I had no idea that this team would be this fantastic and would have the right people from the start,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of luck we had but it really paid off.

“Normally an event like this will take six months to plan out.”

For more information on Nanaimo Heritage Days, please visit www.nanaimoheritage.org.

nicholas.pescod@nanaimobulletin.com