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Car Free Day Vancouver 2011 (Main Street) is today

Raul — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:56:00 +0000

Actually, all of the Car Free Day Vancouver 2011 locations are holding the festival today, but since I live on Main Street, the one I’ll be covering will be this one (well, perhaps not covering, but I’ll show my face at least).

Main Street will be closed from 12th Avenue to 29th Avenue. This street festival celebrates non-car-based modes of transportation, and often features sustainability-related businesses and shows. There are Car Free Day festivals on Main Street, Commercial Drive, The West End and Kitsilano. It’s good fun, and it’s free, so you should totally check it out.

More about the Car Free Day Festival:

In 2005, the Commercial Drive Festival launched the first community- driven Car-Free Festival in Vancouver. The Festival was wholly volunteer-organized and presented, involving over 30 core organizers and 300 volunteers. It was an enormous success, bringing over 25,000 people out to celebrate the community and party in the street.

After that, the Festival happened in 2006 and twice in the summer of 2007, snowballing in popularity and attracting up to 40,000 people per day. Clearly, car-free days were an idea whose time had come.

The first annual Car-Free Vancouver Day, on Sunday June 15, 2008 ushered in the next phase in this bold experiment that had been gradually happening in Vancouver for many years. It took the car-free meme to the whole city, and represented the next level in our evolution toward healthy communities, authentic cultural celebrations, and car-free streets. On that day, FOUR communities presented their own Car-Free Festivals: Kitsilano, West End, Main Street, and Commercial Drive. Each Festival was envisioned and organized by the local core organizers, and each had a unique flavour.

Car Free Day on Main Street

Raul — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:12:45 +0000

Even though I was still pretty sick over the weekend (I’m getting better now), I went to the Car Free Day (Main Street) for a bit with Minna (The Network Hub) and Erica (The Style Spy). We had a good time (even though I had to wrap myself in a good jacket, and the sun came out mid-afternoon). I was pretty impressed with the excellent organization of the festival, and the abundance of options for everything from Greek food to Jamaican to even a taste of Ethiopian.

There were plenty of bands providing excellent entertainment for the crowd.

The Vancouver People Summit also took place between 30th and 33rd Avenue, on Main Street. It almost felt like “Sustainability Row”. Very cool, lots of booths associated with non-profits who do work on sustainability, social justice, equity and international development.

New forms of transportation were also showcased, including the Spider Car.

June 20th is @CarFreeMain – @CarFreeYVR #CFMain

Raul — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:14:58 +0000

My good friend J. Karen Parker has volunteered for Car-Free Day Vancouver for a couple of years now and I have written about it every time since. This year, volunteers have taken it upon themselves to promote each one of the regions, and I’m obviously promoting my own (I live near Main Street).

The first annual Car-Free Vancouver Day, on Sunday June 15, 2008 ushered in the next phase in this bold experiment that had been gradually happening in Vancouver for many years. It took the car-free meme to the whole city, and represented the next level in our evolution toward healthy communities, authentic cultural celebrations, and car-free streets. On that day, FOUR communities presented their own Car-Free Festivals: Kitsilano, West End, Main Street, and Commercial Drive. Each Festival was envisioned and organized by the local core organizers, and each had a unique flavour.

[Car Free Festival's About Page]

Sunday June 20th is a tricky day because my Mom arrives on the 23rd, so I know for a fact I’m going to be insanely busy. But I’ll try to at least check it out for a bit. Hope you will join in the fun too! If you live on the Main Street area, please remember that Main Street will be closed from 12th Avenue all the way up to 33rd.

Volunteers needed for Car-Free Festival (@CarFreeYVR)

Raul — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:36:20 +0000

Via my friend J. Karen Parker, I learned that the organizing committee of Car Free Festival Vancouver (full disclosure – Karen is on the committe) is in search of awesome volunteers. From the email of one of the organizers to Karen, here is what they need. Please consider helping out.

Please take a minute to check in with your friends, family, coworkers, yoga buddies, dental hygienists, neighbours and coffee barristas about them doing a 2-hour shift for us. I really, really need barricaders for 4-6 and especially 6-8, always hard shifts to fill.

This request is for the Denman Street area, but I am well aware that since the festival has expanded on Main from 12th Avenue to King Edward, they’ll need people too. If you are willing to help (in either the Denman Street or Main Street areas), please drop a comment or contact me via my contact form and I’ll inform the organizers. Thanks!

Thanks!

Car-Free Festival: Reporting back on Main Street

Raul — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:18:27 +0000

The Car-Free Festival: Main Street Edition was very much a lot of fun. My friend Karen Parker was volunteering for the West End one, but I wasn’t really much in the mood to swing by (and I had to finish inserting a few references in EndNote). [Sorry Karen!]

For me, eating cotton candy is one of those things that transports me back to a wonderful childhood. I hadn’t had a chance to eat cotton candy since I was 20, so this tasted like a little piece of heaven! I was also very touched by the fact that young kids were helping out and making the cotton candy.

I wanted cotton candy… so they were kind and gave me one!

Main Street was closed between 12th Avenue and 16th Avenue (thank you and kudos to the Vancouver Police Department, the City of Vancouver Fire Department and all other local support, because it was VERY well protected. I felt really safe walking there, thanks to road closures and having an ambulance standing by!). Another really cool element was an exhibition of many different modes of transportation with bikes.

You need balance to do this!

I had an opportunity to speak with a number of people in different booths, which was REALLY cool. Some of them had already read my blog! YAY! Furthermore, there were a lot of exhibits that showcased the amazing stuff we have on Main Street, including the Happy Bats Cinema (who offered veggie dogs, popcorn and soda by donation!). I mean, how cool is that?

The music was fantastic, and I made a point of listening to musicians on all three stages. This photo is from the main stage (on 13th Avenue)

I plan to write more detailed posts with focus on each one of the booths/businesses that were showcased, but in the mean time, I know you want to check my Flickr account for more photos, so go there right now

SIDE NOTES – Some other local bloggers also have done reviews/links/photos of Car-Free Festival. Do you mind dropping a comment and I’ll update this post as I get the links? Thanks!