Cambie All Access Street Party
byWith the Canada Line nearing completion it’s about time the businesses and shops along Cambie Street see the return of some much-needed foot traffic.
To celebrate the re-opening of the street that felt the pains of the “cut and cover” construction there will be a street party April 25th and everyone is invited to participate in this free event.
When Saturday April 25th from 11:00am to 5:00pm
What Free concert with 54-40
Where Outside of Best Buy (at 6th and Cambie) and up to Broadway
More info Rock 101 will be there and you can learn more on the Best Buy website.
Rumour has it Fin from the Vancouver Canucks will stop by, 54-40 will sign autographs, there will be video game tents and fun activities for the entire family. Save-on-Foods will supply the hotdogs and businesses from Canadian Tire to Original Joes will have swag, product demos, and live music.
11 Comments — Comments Are Closed
rebecca,
i’ve been reading your blog for a while and enjoy hearing about all the events you’ve highlighted but I was wondering…. do you have these events scheduled onto a Google calendar feed?
cheers
Hey there!
Like above, I’ve been reading your blog for a while.
You did a post about your visit to The International Dermal Institute a while back and I’ve got a question.
Do they do Dermalogica facials there for the public or is it strictly a teaching facility??
Enjoy the cherry blossoms
So does this mean they will be closing down Cambie from 6th to Broadway?
If not it will create traffic as if it were closed off to vehicle traffic! hehe
I get to see 54-40 up at Whistler for the TWSS Festival this year. Hopefully I can get some snaps of them on stage with my media pass.
Hi Tyler,
The street will be open – as that’s what we’re celebrating after all! It will be a ‘street side’ party with all the activity happening on the widened sidewalks on Cambie between 6th and Broadway. Part of 6th Ave will be closed though for the stage.
See you all there!
More details are being updated at bestbuy.ca/cambieallaccess and http://www.shoptheline.ca
All right, this should be fun, I’m really glad to see more street parties happening in Vancouver. The Juno street party was so much fun for everyone!
Unfortunately for business-owners there, it’s far too little, far too late.
While I’m very happy that the construction is wrapping up, and numerous businesses will be able to return to normal operations, I can’t say that this celebration really excites me. Sure, having 54 40 play live is a great draw, but something about the fact that this street party only seems to be going on between Broadway and 6th leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I say this primarily because the support is largely going to larger businesses lined along this stretch of Cambie. These large retailers, Best Buy, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, etc. all have the benefit of being highly trafficked retailers with giant advertising budgets, who also benefit from being their only location to serve this part of Vancouver. While the construction may have made them less accessible, I doubt that their businesses were affected all that much seeing as they serve a dense region, their customers still found a way to get to them.
On the other hand, you’ve got the retailers between Broadway & 21st, many of which are ma & pop shops, independently run, that probably suffered the greatest from the construction. Many of them were very inaccessible, and without the name brand or advertising reach of the larger businesses, they couldn’t rely on their customers doing whatever it took to get to them. All I had hoped was that these retailers would’ve been rewarded with some sort of street party or fair of this magnitude to help promote the re-opening of their street, and celebrate their perseverance through 3 miserable years of construction.
In fact there was a very large scale street party for the merchants further up the street. For Christmas 2007 when the Canada Line construction ended in that area a large scale event was held in Cambie Village that included a performance stage, radio personalities, choirs, horse and carriage rides, activity centres such as gingerbread decorating and crafts, an ice carving station, numerous floats from the santa parade, and more. It was a family event and was one of many events held in Cambie Village throughout the construction including previous Christmas celebrations, Halloween, Easter and Summer events. In all there were dozens of programs in the area including valentines contest, full page restuarant ads in Vancouver Magazine, pre-show movie ads in Cineplex theatres, parking map distribution, free shopping trolley and more.
It does no good to measure who suffered the “greatest” as reduced traffic impacts everyone. Whether you are a larger retailer, one of their employees, or a smaller shop, its all relative. In this case, the large retailers really wanted to help promote that the bridge area and broadway were being “unplugged” which benefits absolutely everyone all the way up the street. They have provided some of that “significant” advertising and marketing budget they have to “eventize” this for the benefit of all including those up the street – who have been invited to participate in any way they wish and which will be promoted for them if they choose to take part using every available means. The idea is to thank everyone for their patience and to encourage people to come back to the neighbourhoods. Bringing in a name act was only possible through the generosity and support of the businesses between 6th and Broadway. And by bringing in several thousand people to re-experience Cambie Street, the take away should be that Cambie Street is open and we can all get back to business as usual. I hope everyone comes and spends the day in Cambie village – from the north end of it to the south.
[…] Cambie All Access Street Party: To celebrate the re-opening of the street that felt the pains of the “cut and cover†construction there will be a street party April 25th and everyone is invited to participate in this free event. […]
The concert rocked despite the technical difficulties. I put together a clip of their hit Ocean Pearl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOkYBpJXVYs
[…] Saturday in my ‘hood 2009 April 27 tags: Vancouver by Kasia Fink Saturday morning, the Gods granted me a temporary break from my headaches (or was it the frock-winning high I was on?) so Mr Fink and I moseyed on down the road to check out the Cambie All Access Street Party. […]