Valley First New Year’s Eve family event postponed

One of Kelowna’s annual winter traditions will be postponed to 2021. In what would have been its 9th year, the “Valley First New York New Years” all-ages friendly celebrations held at Stuart Park and the Kelowna Community Theatre will not be held in 2020.

“As disappointed as we are to formally announce the decision, it was rather inevitable,” explained Renata Mills, Executive Director for Festivals Kelowna, the organization that created and produced the family event since 2012. “With the growing attendance we have seen over the years, and the size of the spaces we use, there is no way we could hold the festivities in a responsible, COVID-safe manner.”

Historically held on December 31st, the annual “Valley First New York New Years” event was started as a way to bring people of all ages together in celebration of the incoming New Year. Running over a short duration from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m., the idea was to allow families to “ring in” an early New Year with their little ones and then continue with their own celebrations afterwards.

Thanks to the generous support of the City of Kelowna and many community business sponsors, the event was always free to attend and featured a variety of indoor and outdoor activities including skating on the outdoor ice rink, drop-in games, craft making, movies on the Kelowna Community Theatre screen, food, giveaways, live music on the outdoor stage, and fireworks at 9:00 p.m.

“Based on the news reports we were seeing, we were quite certain we couldn’t hold our event in the same way this year so we were quietly working on an alternate, seasonal event in lieu of the New Years Eve celebration,” said Mills. “However, with the announcement by Provincial Public Health in late November declaring no events could be held for an extended period of time, we knew we’d have to postpone our plans. We did explore a virtual version of our activities, but frankly, that isn’t what we do. Festivals Kelowna produces live, outdoor events for our community. As such, our staff will simply move our plans into 2021 when it will be much safer to gather once again for community celebrations. After such an upside down year, we are very excited about that prospect.”

Festivals Kelowna is a local, non-profit organization that produces community focused, arts-based festivals and programs.