This year’s Vaisakhi Vancouver Parade is going to look a little bit different.
Organizers have changed the route to make it safer, following the tragedy at the Lapu Lapu Festival last April.
“The provisions that could have been taken, we are now taking in terms of vehicle mitigation and with the full support of the public safety director at the city of Vancouver, film and special events, and the Vancouver Police Department,” Pall Beesla, a volunteer with Khalsa of the One Society, which is the organizer and host of the parade, told Global News.
“And Marine Drive was always dangerous in that regard, not from intentional threat, but also accidental,” he added.
“And so I would say the tragedy of Lapu-Lapu Day was a catalyst for us to change a historic 40-year-plus route to one that is safer from accidental or intentional harm.”
The parade route will now travel up Ross Street, which was used previously, but only for part of the route.
“The new portion, the east-west portion, is kind of, there’s a new section from Fraser to Maine,” Beesla said.
“That’s a brand new section which is meant to emulate the east-west corridor that we previously used along Marine Drive. So we’ll lose part of the Marine Drive in that regard, but it’s safer to take Ross and 57 (Street). We’ll lose a part of the uphill from Marine Drive along Main Street from Marine Drive to 57, which there used to be a lot of activation there in terms of community and volunteers that used to come out and set up and again, give away food, fruits and things of that sort.”
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Beesla said they are doing their best to relocate those volunteers and learn every year what works better and that new opportunities are available.
He also brought up the issue of potential risks during a large gathering.
“Over the last 12 months, unfortunately, we’ve seen extremists, or you can say folks with fanatical thought, fanatics, and the reality is fanaticism exists in every faith, every culture, and bringing those folks to the table, so to speak, with understanding takes calmness and consideration,” Beesla said.
“What we’ve seen in the last 12 months, particularly the events in New Zealand, where two Nagar Kirtan or Visaki parades were halted because of essentially a protest from folks who didn’t understand our culture, our faith, didn’t understand the intent behind the festival and the parade, but rather objected to something they didn’t know and understand.”
The Vaisakhi Festival and Parade in Vancouver is now in its 47th year, with only a pause during the pandemic.
“When you talk about safety, no one questions that,” Beesla said. “They understand. People want to be kept safe. They want to feel safe. And that’s why we’re very fortunate to have the support we do from the Vancouver Police Department, who are going above and beyond to ensure public safety and cooperation and collaboration.”
Sgt. Adam Donaldson with the Vancouver Police Department said, “The city provided VPD with the route change and what VPD’s job is to make a plan for the preparations for the route change and we found that taking the parade off Marine Drive made it much more simple to secure,” he said.
“There’s far fewer entrance points for vehicles to come into the event site.”
Donaldson said attendees and organizers will see a lot more security at this year’s parade and festival.
“Last year, you may have seen a plastic barricade or some cones at an alleyway or a driveway entrance, you may now see cones and a police officer. You might also see heavy vehicle barricades, which are two junk trucks parked in a street staggered.
“And we also have Archer Barriers, which is something new that we brought in post-Lapu Lapu. We actually purchased those Archer Barriers before Lapu Lapu, quite a few months before, but they just happened to arrive after Lapu Lapu.”
Beesla hopes people attend the parade this year as an opportunity to build bridges with communities that may not be from the Sikh community.
“There’s a story from a few years ago where a family moved in and they weren’t expecting the parade that day and it hindered their ability to move in,” he said.
“They weren’t from the faith. But rather than looking at it as something that was negative, they took it on as an opportunity to participate and also give back.”
Vancouver’s Vaisakhi Parade is set for Saturday, April 11, starting at 11 a.m.
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