From racing peach bins, building sandcastles on the beach, to a throwdown in the park and flying bikes the 71st annual Penticton Peach Festival is another one for the books.
The five days of free, family fun wrapped up Sunday with a full slate of entertainment activities starting off with the Minuteman Press Kiddies Parade and A&W Kiddies Day in Okanagan Lake Park then finishing with the music of Madeline Merlo.
“At the end of it all, I’ve always said the thing that’s great about Peach Festival is that it’s multi-generational. You can see two or three or four generations of families in the park and everybody can afford to go,” said Peach Festival board president Don Kendall. “How many people can’t afford to take two or three or four kids to an event like that. It’s pretty special.
“We get nothing out of it. We’re all volunteers, so doing something that helps the community, it does give you a good feeling.”
Related: Peachfest wraps up for another year
The fun began Wednesday, London Drugs Seniors Day, and featured the first of three Home Hardware morning Kids’ Zones at Gyro Park that included the likes of children’s energy-plus entertainer Kiki the Eco Elf, animal petting farm (reptiles included) exhibits and rides.
| A member of the Central Okanagan Dog Agility club during a demonstration of its skills.Mark Brett/Western News |
It was also opening day for Shooting Star Amusements in Rotary Park. But, the big kick off was a pair of jumps by the Canadian Forces SkyHawks parachute team and a jam-packed Okanagan Lake Park for evening headliner Kim Mitchell.
“The crowds that we had in the park every night, we’ve never had more people,” said Kendall. “The night (Thursday) we had April Wine there, that had to be the biggest crowd we’ve ever had. We had people backed right up against the gate. We could not of had more people physically get in the park.”
As well, again this year on Lakeshore Drive, the high-flying, death-defying motocross riders had people looking skyward.
Related: Peach City Peach Festival heading into final day
“The Canadian Tire Mega Motocross was fantastic, that’s just an awesome show,” said Kendall.
Saturday’s Peters Bros. Grand Parade, which meandered through the downtown core over the course of two hours, had thousands of spectators packed two and three deep to see the many unique floats, marching bands and other participants.
“Dan Ashton (MLA) whose ridden in the parade for 20 years told me it was the biggest crowd he’s ever seen,” said Kendall. “There was a a lot great entries, from Alberta, B.C., Washington, Oregon and Idaho. There were about 10 U.S. floats and their floats are just unbelievable.
| Spectators on the balcony get a birds-eye view of the Mega Motocross demonstration.Mark Brett/Western News |
“We had a lot of comments from people (parade participants) all saying what a fabulous parade. What was really neat is there were a lot of the people along the route who were thanking the out-of-town people for coming to Penticton.”
The President’s Choice float winner was Olympia. Hyack took the over 25,000 community division with second going to Steveston. Chewelah was first in the under 25,000 and Deer Park was second.
Non-commercial winner was Victory Church, Tidy Tushees was the commercial winner and Blazen Divaz in the novelty division.
Throughout the five days there were a wide variety of special events held in conjunction with the festival including Friday night’s Miss Penticton ceremony at the Cleland Theatre.
On that night, Brooklyn Adams was crowned the new queen with Nyah Meller and Sara Wood named princesses.
| A member of the marching Falun Dafa group at the Peters Bros. Grand Parade Saturday.Mark Brett/Western News |
Other activities during the festival included the annual Skaha Lake Ultra Swim from Skaha Beach to Okanagan Falls Sunday, the sixth annual Pentown Throwdown BMX and Skateboard event Saturday, the 14th annual Sheila Bishop Wood Bat slopitch tournament and the 65th consecutive Square and Round Dancing Festival.
Winner of the swim was Casey Riess of Edmonton in a time of two hours, 26 minutes, 55 seconds. Fastest local was Haley Berrisford of Summerland, 2:46:59.
Kendall had nothing but praise for the 18 directors on the board and the other 300 volunteers.
He had a special word of thanks as well for the sponsors and vendors.
“If it wasn’t for them — Dave Kampe and Peters Bros. have taken Peach Festival to a whole other level — we couldn’t put on the largest free festival in Canada.
“Now, we’ll have our first meeting in a couple weeks and look back on how things can be improved and what we did right then the planning begins for next year.”
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