The weekend of May 30 was the perfect day to host a fun family festival in Quesnel.
Despite some showers throughout the week, the 5th Annual Quesnel & District Community Arts Council’s Children’s Festival was blessed with some sun, which brought out a near record-breaking attendance.
“I think we’re over 300 families that have attended so far, and it’s not over,” says Cathy Heinzelman, one of the organizers of the Children’s Festival for the Quesnel & District Community Arts Council.
“It’s so great to see the same families coming out to our events from time to time, year to year. The kids grow up a little bit more, and we get to see some new babies make their first appearances; it’s really just a wonderful event.”
Heinzelman says that the Children’s Festival was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when funding was brought together to create programs that bring together all the children’s support services in the town.
Local and out-of-town entertainers are brought in, and almost every child’s support vendor makes an appearance at the “for families” event. The Quesnel RCMP detachment and Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department also joined in and provided a lot of fun for the kids. Heinzelman says lunch is always provided, and this year, over 500 pieces of Pizza and 500 pieces of bannock were completely gone by the early afternoon.
The Child Development Centre designed a purple dinosaur logo that was put onto gift bags that each family got to take home as a memento of this year’s event.
“This year we’ve had more participants, more kids than we’ve had before,” Heinzelman said with a grin. “We’ve run out of stuff. It’s been fantastic to see this flourish and be something so many families come back to each year.”
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