Car Free Day Vancouver
To our Car Free Day festival attendees, supporters, and partners…
The Car Free Vancouver Society has been reclaiming streets for 16 years, working with the local community to reimagine what’s possible when we take away the cars. We’ve seen that when we remove them, so much beauty and wonder has space to flourish.
2020 has been a strange journey so far, and it’s an unprecedented time for everyone in the world as we deal with the new COVID-19 pandemic. The Car Free Day team is watching closely as the situation develops, and from day one of the pandemic we’ve strategized how to best keep our community safe and healthy. We produce a festival series with over 300,000 attendees, and everyone’s safety has always been our number one priority.
With safety and health in mind, we have come to the unfortunate decision that we must restructure our 2020 operations, and cancel our large-scale festivals.
The West End, Main Street, and Commercial Drive events will move to an online format – there are many ways we can celebrate local arts and culture digitally, and we look forward to still having performance opportunities for local artists, and ways for local makers to connect with customers online. The West End and Main Street festivals remain committed to recognizing and celebrating National Indigenous Peoples day on June 20th and 21st – as plans develop, please keep watch for exciting announcements for what we have in store.
As the COVID-19 pandemic changes, so will we – when it’s safe to do so, we’ll host a variety of smaller pop-up events and activities to reclaim the space traditionally devoted to cars. Car-culture is not off the hook this year!
While the current focus is to stay indoors and physically isolated, we’re remotely organizing around several issues related to public space, streets, and pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure. We encourage those who are passionate about these issues and want to see a safer, more people-focused Vancouver to get in touch with us – we have many volunteer opportunities in 2020, and plan to dream big despite the COVID-19 setbacks.
For vendors and other participants in the festivals, please see our vendor page for more details regarding how you can be involved and what happens if you’ve already applied.
For local businesses and community members interested in supporting us financially through donations or sponsorship, please get in touch with our society director at [email protected].
During these challenging times, we ask that you think about the community as a whole and what is best for everyone. This includes staying at home, helping out where you can, and keeping our city’s most vulnerable in mind when moving about.
We thank you all for your ongoing support, and everything you’ve contributed to our events and the car-free movement over the years.
Yours in Solidarity,
The Car Free Vancouver Team
