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Is Sapperton Days doomed in 2019?

Sapperton Days is at risk of being cancelled unless funding can be found to keep it afloat for 2019. The annual street festival is in dire need of cash to pay for professionals to help to organize this year’s event.
Sapperton Days
The popular Sapperton Days street festival is at risk of ending if additional funds can't be found to pay people to help organize the event.

Sapperton Days is at risk of being cancelled unless funding can be found to keep it afloat for 2019.

The annual street festival is in dire need of cash to pay for professionals to help to organize this year’s event.

“For the last five or six years I have done everything – like 95 per cent of it,” New West resident Guy Ciprian told the Record. “It’s over 600 hours, over 3,000 incoming emails every year. It’s calling in a lot of favours, industry professionals I work with.”

The Sapperton Merchants’ Association and the McBride-Sapperton Residents’ Association once organized various aspects of the festival, which was once a two-day event. In recent years, the bulk of the work has fallen on Ciprian, with some business representatives helping with planning, and residents and businesses volunteering on the day of the festival.

“Where we are now is, I have about 12 hats I wear – everything from production, risk management, volunteer scheduling, administration, logistics and so forth,” he said. “It’s too many hours.”

Festivals in other neighbourhoods, such as the Columbia StrEAT Food Truck Festival and Uptown Live, have paid administrative staff and funding from their business improvement associations, as well as city grants and sponsorship funds, but Sapperton Days is run solely by volunteers and is funded by a city grant, in-kind donations and sponsorships, he said.

Ciprian said the time needed to plan the festival has increased in recent years because of more demands from the city’s festivals department, which is particularly challenging for events planned by volunteers who have jobs of their own. He said more events are taking place in New West and they’re all targeting the same pockets for sponsorship money.

According to Ciprian, the daylong event is funded by $18,000 in sponsorship money (including a $5,000 grant from the City of New Westminster), $10,000 in vendor fees and $60,000 of in-kind donations that cover the costs of items such as tents, staging and fencing.

The Sapperton Days festival takes place on East Columbia Street between Sherbrook and Braid streets on the Sunday before Father’s Day. Last year’s event featured live entertainment, 60 or 70 merchandise vendors, booths for 10 to 20 non-profit organizations, food trucks, kids’ activities such as face painting, balloon twisting and bouncy castles.

“We have well over 100 things on the street,” Ciprian said. “Every one of them takes multiple emails and time to coordinate.”

If the organizing committee is able to secure more funds, Ciprian said people could be hired to do certain tasks, such as registering vendors, sourcing and booking entertainment (much of which is free), and working with sponsors.

“It’s disheartening. I have been running this event for 16 years. The event is really a part of me. Like anything in life, I just can’t put the time in that I did before,” he said. “Will I be there the day of? For sure. Will I still participate in the management? For sure. I have the blueprints, but I just can’t answer 3,000 emails and do 600 hours.”

Mayor Jonathan Cote said the city has received a letter requesting additional funds to support Sapperton Days.

“The festival was granted to same amount that it was in past years, but they are looking for further financial support,” he said in an email to the Record. “My understanding is that this issue will be coming to council on Monday Feb 25 for discussion.”

Ciprian said the community and sponsors want the festival to happen, and he believes Sapperton Day is worth saving.

“From our perspective, we feel it is very important,” he said. “We feel it is a big part of the livability and the history of the city. There is a lot of people who come back to the city every year for the event to see their friends. It’s kind of like a big street party, but it’s also important for the businesses.”