More top venues include Vancouver’s Canada Place, West Vancouver’s John Lawson Park, Burnaby’s Swanguard Stadium and Burnaby Village Museum, Surrey‘s Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre Park, Coquitlam’s Lafarge Park, Fort Langley, Whistler Village and the list goes on.
Canada Day Events in the Lower Mainland
Canada Day takes place on July 1st each year and throughout the Lower Mainland there are celebrations of all kinds including pancake breakfasts, parades, live entertainment and fireworks.
Below is the schedule of Canada Day events and locations for 2018. Click any of the links below to jump to a venue of interest, or scroll down to see all locations.
Canada Place | Burrard Inlet Fireworks | Vancouver Parade
Burnaby | Coquitlam | Fort Langley | Maple Ridge | New Westminster | North Vancouver | Port Moody | Steveston Village | Surrey | West Vancouver | Whistler | White Rock
The area around Canada Place in downtown Vancouver is without a doubt one of the best (and busiest) places to be on July 1st. The parade is only a 10-minute walk from there, and the evening fireworks are right next door in Coal Harbour.
The festivities at Canada Place claim to be the second largest Canada Day celebrations on the globe, next only to those in Ottawa, Canada’s capital. There are live performances at Canada Place all day, and thousands of people.
At the Canada Place celebrations, in addition to evening fireworks, there are free outdoor concerts. Bands in 2016 included Aaron Pritchett and Sheena Easton, as well as Vancouver’s own Barney Bentall. In 2017 there was the Sam Roberts Band. For 2018, the headliner band is JoJo Mason, a Canadian country music creater and performer with hits including Red Dress, Good Kinda Love, and It’s All Good.
For more information on July 1st activities at this venue, click Canada Day at Canada Place.
Best places to watch the fireworks at night on Canada Day are anywhere along the water in Coal Harbour, including Canada Place, around the Convention Centre, or anywhere along the Coal Harbour seawall between the Convention Centre and the Vancouver-facing side of Stanley Park.
Views of the fireworks are also really good from North Vancouver, including from Lonsdale Quay, the pier by Shipbuilder’s Square and Waterfront Park.
Check out the Canada Day at Canada Place website for more information on the day’s activities downtown.
2018 VANCOUVER PARADE HAS BEEN CANCELLED!
Note: Vancouver’s Canada Day parade for 2018 has been cancelled! Due to cost challenges, the Port of Metro Vancouver has decided not to host the parade this year!
Other parades are still taking place in the Lower Mainland, however, including in Steveston Village, Fort Langley and North Vancouver.
Free Canada Day festivities in Burnaby take place at Burnaby Village Museum, Edmonds Community Centre and Swangard Stadium.
The Burnaby Village event runs from 11 am to 4:30 pm and is both educational and fun, especially for families and children.
Smaller and fairly simple family-friendly celebrations also take place at Edmonds Community Centre outdoors at 7433 Edmonds Street between 11 am and 4:30 pm.
At Swangard Stadium free concerts begin at 6:30 pm and the fireworks start at dusk.
See Canada Day in Burnaby for more details on activities at each venue.
Canada Day festivities take place at Lafarge Lake not far from the Lafarge-Lake Douglas SkyTrain Station from 12:00 until 10:30 pm.
The free family-friendly celebrations in Coquitlam typically include food trucks, community information booths, outdoor concerts and evening fireworks.
Click Coquitlam on Canada Day for more information.
Fort Langley celebrates Canada Day at the historic fort with birthday cake and other family-friendly activities. The nearby BC Farm Machinery & Agricultural Museum and Langley Centennial Museum are both also open on July 1st.
Last year, to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, the festiviites in town were bigger than usual. In 2018 it will be a smaller event like most other years.
Click Fort Langley for details.
July 1st celebrations at the Memorial Peace Park run from 12:30 in the early afternoon until 6:00 in the evening.
Things to enjoy at the free event include the farmers market, pony rides, community BBQ, family games and a multicultural parade. Decorate your bike in full Canadian style and participate in the parade – all ages welcome.
The day includes live concerts, with the finale performed by the R&B All Starsat 4:45 pm.
The day finishes at 6:00 with a Canada Day Flyover and the singing of Happy Birthday to Canada!!!
For more details click Maple Ridge.
For 2018, New Westminster has a few events taking place on July 1st.
One is the New Westminster Multicultural Festival, and it is put on by the New Westminster Philippine Festival Society. Free family-friendly activities happen at Pier Park between 3:00 and 10:00 pm.
Activities include perusing the festival expo featuring food vendors and businesses and other interesting exhibits. Enjoy dancing in the park and later, the fireworks display at the Quay. Click Multicultural Festival for more information.
Another July 1st event is the official New Westminster Canada Day event at Queens Park. Crafts, live music and family-friendly activities run from 11:30 until 3:00 pm. Click New Westminster for more information.
A third event takes place on Canada Day in New Westminster – the Hyack Festival’s market and evening fireworks. The pyrotechnics start at 10 pm and live entertainment runs until 11 pm. Click New West Fireworks for more information.
In North Vancouver on July 1st there is a parade in the morning and a festival in the afternoon. Last year, in celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday, there were also free concerts at Waterfront Park in the evening, but not in 2018.
Click North Van July 1st Celebrations for full details about the afternoon festivities in 2018.
North Van Canada Day Parade
Canada Day celebrations on the North Shore begin with a parade from about 10 am. The parade route goes along 13th Street from Grand Boulevard before heading down 17th Street via Lonsdale Avenue to Mahon Park. The best place to view the procession is by 14th and Lonsdale, although this is also the most crowded.
Canada Day at Waterfront Park
North Vancouver’s main Canada Day celebrations are an afternoon event, with family-friendly activities and entertainment on July 1st at Waterfront Park, which is just a short walk from the Seabus terminal at Lonsdale Quay.
At the North Vancouver Canada Day celebrations there is an artisan craft market, kids’ activities, food vendors, dancers, live music, bagpipes and other performances by local Vancouver and North Shore talent.
If you plan to be on the North Shore in the afternoon on July 1st and want to celebrate Canada’s birthday, then Waterfront Park is the place to be.
Click North Vancouver Canada Day Celebrations for more information.
Note: the festivities at Waterfront Park go from noon until around 4 pm most years. In 2017, however, at the same venue there was a fabulous line-up of evening concerts including The Powder Blues! Click North Shore July 1st 2017 Concerts for details.
Canada Day celebrations at Rocky Point Park are from 11 am until 11 pm. Family-friendly activities include an import car show, boat rides and live entertainment all day. Barnie Bentall & the Legendary Hearts perform an evening concert starting at 9:15 pm. Click Port Moody for more information.
Note: Port Moody’s Canada Day festivities are actually part of that community’s larger 4-day Golden Spike Days festival that takes place over 4 days during the July Long Weekend.
One of the best times to visit historic Steveston Village in Richmond is on Canada Day when the community attracts up to 70,000 people to its Salmon Festival which features a pancake breakfast, parade, Japanese cultural fair, craft fair, music concerts and a world famous salmon BBQ.
Check out the Steveston Salmon Festival for more information.
Some of the largest celebrations in the Lower Mainland take place at the Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre in Surrey at 176th Street and 64th Avenue. As with most other top Canada Day festival venues, admission is free. There are, however, amusement rides for which tickets cost about $1.25 and each ride requires between 1 and 6 tickets.
In addition to all the midway rides, games and food vendors, the Surrey Canada Day event also features live music concerts throughout the day, finishing with the star attraction at the end, just before the fireworks which start at about 10:15.
For more information, check out Surrey Canada Day Festivities.
West Vancouver hosts its Canada Day celebrations at John Lawson Park, with the District’s Red and White Picnic running from the late afternoon until the end of the fireworks. At this community event participants are invited to bring their lawn chairs and picnic dinners and enjoy a variety of live entertainment performances.
While fireworks take off from a barge in the water off Coal Harbour in downtown Vancouver, a similar barge on the waters just off West Vancouver’s John Lawson Park is the site for a second series of pyrotechnics. Places to watch the display include the beaches at Ambleside, John Lawson Park and Dundarave.
Click Red & White Picnic for more information on the West Vancouver Canada Day celebrations.
Less than a two-hour drive from Vancouver, more fabulous Canada Day celebrations take place up at Whistler.
On July 1st most years there’s a pancake breakfast, parade and a free outdoor performance by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Also in the afternoon there are art displays and live music throughout the village in the later part of the afternoon, and then fireworks by Skiers’ Plaza starting soon after 10 pm.
For more information on Canada Day and other July long weekend events, check out the Whistler Website.
Canada Day by the Bay happens on White Rock’s West Beach between 11:30 am and 10:30 pm. Activities there include a sandcastle-building competition, free concerts, family-friendly activities and fireworks.
Click White Rock for more information.
For other major events in the Lower Mainland at different times of the year, check out the Festivals and Events Calendar.
Source: Vancouver Best Places
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