President's Post Festival Message

Well another Billy Barker Days has come and gone and what a spectacular one it was. Although Mother Nature did not cooperate with us completely we still had large numbers of people to participate.

Twice this weekend I was overwhelmed by the devotion that Quesnels' citizens have to Billy Barker Days and entertainment. It was pouring rain in the park Saturday afternoon while "Gone Country" was performing and the kids were still dancing in the rain and hail and their fans were still watching. The weather did not improve Saturday night and we sold out of rain ponchos by 7:00pm.The band Thunderstruck was concerned about the fans and asked if they could play earlier so the people of Quesnel didn't freeze. I said we have to keep on schedule because the park is still filling up and it is in the program that you play at 7:30pm, so we have to wait for the people. The band could not believe the die hard attitude of Quesnel residents. Both Jaydee Bixby and Thunderstruck asked if they could come back to Quesnel and play again. They said we exceeded their expectations and felt very spoiled by us.

This whole weekend we had great numbers in the park for our activities. Seniors’ day had well over 300 people and Kids’ Day had a great amount of children again. Charlotte Diamond was amazing to watch in the park and had both adults and children participating on her stage. We were so pleased to have her dress up in one of our costumes and enter into the parade.

Our stage this year once again was full of great talent from young groups to older groups with a variety of music. Quesnel should be very proud and keep supporting these bands.

Thanks to Lynne Wright and her parade committee we had a spectacular parade again this year. It was nice to see their smiling faces and they are on board again for next year. We are not sure on the numbers yet from the rest of the events that went on in Quesnel but over all the comments I've heard was everyone had a great time everywhere they went.

Police presence once again was very noticeable and from what I could see they were very busy. We appreciated how quick they were to respond to our phone calls when there was an incident.

Billy’s phenomenal fireworks were exactly just that "Phenomenal." It is always great when you can end a festival with something so fantastic.

Everyone around me was so pleased and was very thankful. Festivals are a lot of work and preparations for the next year starts almost immediately after. It takes the whole year to plan Billy Barker Days and I am so proud of our members and office staff because they work so hard to bring this to life every year. It is a personal satisfaction when your directorship runs smooth and the people are happy.

A special thank you to our volunteers who come and help us out for the weekend without them we would not be able to provide the quality that we try to strive for. We are starting to outlast many festivals now and that is because we are trying to keep it a "free family festival" and the only way we can do that is because of the most important people, our corporate sponsors, thank you for keeping Billy Barker Days alive for another year . We look forward to the 37th annual next year.

Last updated 03/07/2010 9:28