New safety measures for the Cathedral Village Arts Festival street fair

The Cathedral Village Arts Festival will make some safety changes at its street fair, after 11 people were killed and dozens were hurt at a Vancouver Filipino festival.

Saturday’s street fair will include concrete barriers at both ends of 13th Avenue and secondary barriers to any entrance leading to the festival, according to Regina Police Service.

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Robert Truszkowski, chair of CVAF, said organizers consulted with the police department after the SUV car ramming attack in April.

“Something that took place in Vancouver … has caused us to really think about our processes here,” he said.

Truszkowski said the barriers are one of the biggest changes to the free festival this year. The fair sees tens of thousands of people who will come and buy from 400 vendors — 100 more than last year.

“It’s been challenging, not something that we really wanted to have to think about, but it’s the reality of the world we live in,” he said.

“I think we’re doing the best we can to balance being vigilant and careful and observant.”

The street fair will run from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Saturday. The festival began on Monday and will run until the end of day on Saturday, with the next two days packed with live music, performances, and buzzing streets.

Organizer Don Young told The Greg Morgan Morning Show people will be able to hear a lot of music at the big tent in the Holy Rosary green space on Friday.

“Everybody knows the big tent at the Holy Rosary green space. We have a Mexican mariachi rock band, so it’ll be loud,” he said.

“After that, we have a Ukrainian rock band and then closing out the night, we have everybody’s favourite, The Andino Suns.”

Young said people will be able to flip back and forth between The Mercury and the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre for half a dozen different sets.

There is also a beer tent at the Cathedral Neighbourhood Centre and a carnival for kids in the green space behind the Holy Rosary.

“We call it Funville. We got the balloon guy and jugglers and the puppy people and Funville is sponsored by SaskMilk, so they’re sending a bunch of volunteers over in cow costumes and we’re gonna have a tug of war.”

Additionally, Young said there are more music and performances scheduled for Saturday.

“The Library Voices are playing at the tent on Saturday night and Megan Nash is playing as well — she’s kind of our big headliner — … we have some thrash metal bands at the community centre and then down at St Mary’s Church we have Northern Lights Blue Grass & Old Tyme Music Society doing a … country dance.”

Young said there are roughly 150 volunteers this year.

“At least half are young newbies joining the festival, so it’s not a bunch of old boomers. There’s a bunch of young kids joining the festival as volunteers, which is great.”

Westminster United Church will also be hosting a variety of performances from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. as well as the Saskatchewan Network of Art Collecting and Connecting Threads quilt display, with doors opening at 10 a.m.

A full schedule of events can be found at cvaf.ca.

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