Billy Barker Days in Quesnel on hold for another year

The Billy Barker Days Society has announced that 2021 festival will not take place in July.

Society President Janice McLean says it was a tough decision, but one they felt they had to make…

“A couple of months ago we did make the decision not go ahead and bring in headliners because those are very high cost items for us, and we didn’t want to commit funds and possibly not have the event.  And as things continued it just became more and more obvious that things will not be opened up enough that we can have several hundred, if not thousands of people in the park at one time.”

McLean says they too are extremely disappointed.

“We’ve got an awesome membership, an awesome group of Directors and everyone really looks forward to having the festival happen, and they really put their heart and soul into it, so to not have it is a huge letdown for everyone.   I must say though we did make the announcement, and we’ve had a couple of positive and encouraging messages to us and that means the world to us.”

McLean says they also felt they had to make the decision as early as possible to give some business the heads up.

“We have to make plans early, it doesn’t just happen at the last minute, but we’ve got other groups and organizations looking our way to to see what we’re doing, and even some of the local businesses in town. Some of the local businesses bring in extra or different inventory to cover for the festival weekend, so if we don’t do that, it’s not really fair to not give them a heads up and let them adjust their plans accordingly.”

This is the third time in five years that Billy Barker Days has been cancelled, twice now due to COVID, and once because of wildfires.

McLean says they are looking forward to getting back to a “normal” year in 2022.

“Absolutely, 100 percent.   That’s actually part of what is flowing into the decision in that we don’t want to commit and spend every last cent we might have on something that’s not going to happen.   We need to have some funds going into the festival, so if we spent it all in this year with no benefit to it, that would jeopardize us in going forward.”

McLean does leave the door open to a scaled down event later in the year however, either in late summer or in the fall, depending on what happens with the pandemic between now and then.