ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: March 10, 1999
Author/Local: Pat Fry/6447
RTS No. 00607

CS&B Date: March 25, 1999

CC File No. 4201

TO:	Standing Committee on General Services and Budgets
FROM:	General Manager of Engineering Services
SUBJECT:	Approval of 1999 Special Events

RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT the Special Events in Appendix A be approved subject to staff working out acceptable arrangements with the event organizers.

B. THAT the Khalsa Diwan Society Vaisakhi Parade be approved subject to the FEST committee's recommendations contained in this report.

C. THAT the First Night event at Science World be approved subject to the FEST committee and the organizer working out acceptable arrangements.

CONSIDERATION

D. THAT Council approve a later start time of 0900 hours for the Sun Run.

OR

E. THAT Council approve the Sun Run subject to the starting times as previously established by the FEST committee.

COUNCIL POLICY

The FEST committee will obtain Council approval annually for the anticipated Special Events that use City property or where the event could have an impact on the adjacent property.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to submit for Council approval the list of anticipated special events to be held in 1999 and to identify issues about specific events on which staff need direction.

DISCUSSION

Appendix A contains the list of 141 Special Events which are anticipated in the City this year and which staff recommend be approved. Confirmed dates are printed and if no application has been received to date, last year's date is shown. While most events listed in Appendix A are annual events, the FEST committee is preparing for an increase in applications for millennium inspired events. The FEST committee will be discussing each millennium related event as it comes up. The FEST committee's mandate will be to assist all event organizers and at the same time ensure the public and neighbouring communities are not impacted negatively. It is likely a separate report will be forwarded to Council when more details and events are known of.

KHALSA DIWAN SOCIETY

At its meeting of March 12, 1998 the Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets approved the 1998 Vaisakhi Parade subject to the following conditions:

· the event to take place on a Saturday

· no stage to be erected at any place along the route

· no speeches to take place at the Punjabi Market

· the parade to proceed through the Punjabi Market without stopping
· the parade to be off the street by 3:00 pm

· the organizers responsible for costs associated with providing the regular police and engineering services, as well as the cost of setting up the Emergency Operations Centre.

· the organizer make arrangements for a building in the vicinity of the Punjabi Market be made available as an information centre and a reception area for lost children.

The 1998 event included large semi tractor trailer trucks, buses and smaller vehicles, sworddemonstration and approximately 5,000 walking participants. The parade took from 30 to 90 minutes to pass a given point depending on the location along the route. The Punjabi Market area proved to be the slowest portion of the route with many delays and stops despite repeated requests from the Police to keep the parade moving.

The lead vehicle is a receptacle for cash donations from the crowds and it becomes extremely difficult to keep the parade moving as most of the donors congregate at the Punjabi Market. The crowd was estimated at 40,000 with the primary gathering spot along Main Street between 49th Ave and 52nd Ave. The parade stretches to approximately five blocks in length with many large gaps between the vehicles. These gaps are caused by vehicles stopping at various times in the procession while parade participants perform sword demonstrations. There were up to six demonstrations per block which hindered the forward movement of the parade.

In 1998, the Emergency Operations Centre was set up at the Vancouver Police Station and Vancouver Helicopters provided a helicopter on a one-time basis to monitor the event from above. The helicopter provided live feed video to the Emergency Command Centre and was a valuable tool for staff to appreciate the magnitude of the crowds and the traffic congestion. A post mortem FEST meeting was held with the organizers and the video and still photographs were viewed at that time. The FEST committee commended the organizers on another successful year and requested that some of the new safety measures that were done for 1998 be repeated for 1999.

The FEST committee recommends that the same conditions be applied to the Khalsa Diwan Society for the Vaisakhi Parade, as in 1998 along with some new safety measures. These conditions have been discussed with the president of the Khalsa Diwan Society and they are as follows:
.

· All speeches to be held at the temple prior the parade.

· No stage or flat deck truck will be permitted anywhere along the parade route.

· Parade vehicles will not be permitted to stop along the route.

· Parade should be off the street by 3:00 pm.

· No one is permitted to ride on the outside of any parade vehicle. (new)

· The organizer is requested to rope off the front of all large vehicles to provide a safety zone and provide rope for donors to use to access the donation boxes along the lead vehicle as was done in 1998. (new)

· No more than two sword demonstrations per block on Main Street between 49th and 53rd Avenues. (new)

· All costs associated with providing Police Officers for traffic control, Engineering Traffic Operations labour and equipment as well as providing personnel to staff the Emergency Command Centre are borne by the organizer.

The organizers were requested to provide a location to use as an information/reception area for lost children. This was not done in 1998 and the Vancouver Police Department was forced to provide this service at the Sunset Community Centre on the day of the event. Six lost children were processed by the police and were transported to the Victim Services Unit.
The Vancouver Police Department has offered their Community Trailer for this purpose for the 1999 event. The trailer will be situated in a central location and the organizers are requested to provide a volunteer to staff the trailer and provide translation services when required. The Police will provide at least two officers as volunteers for the trailer.

THE VANCOUVER SUN RUN

This year the organizers of the Sun Run have again asked the FEST committee to approve a later start time of 0900 hours. In 1992 Council rejected the same request for this start time and instead approved a wave start, with the first 6000 runners to go at 0815, and the remaining runners at 0830 hours. There were about 10,000 participants at that time.

Since that time the event has grown in popularity and last year's event had 41,862 entrants. 1999 will be the event's 15th anniversary and the organizers are expecting in the order of 50,000 participants and are working toward their goal to make the Sun Run the largest 10K run in the world.

Each year the organizer receives requests from willing participants to start the race later so as to allow extra time for people who live outside of greater Vancouver to travel into the downtown core. BC Transit is not available at the early hour that would be necessary for participants to arrive in time. However, the FEST committee is not able to support the request for a later start time for this event. The reasons that were given in the previous report are the same and, in fact, accentuated with the numbers we've seen in the last few years.

The concerns are:

· Park Board policy is to open the park to normal traffic by 10:00 a.m.

· Participation in the event continues to grow each year and the route may not be able to accommodate the extra participants the later start time would allow for.

· Length of time spent on the route is increased significantly when the numbers of participants create a back log and the flow is slowed to pass any given point.

· Access to and from the apartments on Beach Ave is almost impossible for much of the race.

This item is before Council as an item for Consideration at the request of the Sun Run organization.

FIRST NIGHT 1998

First Night is a family oriented, community based, non-alcoholic New Year's event comprised of visual and performing arts. First Night revives the ancient tradition of marking the passage of time with art, ritual, and festivity in a present day setting.

Hamazaki Wong Marketing Group, the organizers of First Night Vancouver, approached the FEST committee for approval of a 1998 New Year's Eve event in June of that year. After considering a number of proposed locations, Science World and the adjacent City-owned property to the south was chosen as a logical and manageable location for this event. Science World is enthusiastic about their partnership with First Night and are hoping a combined program will see festival attendees enjoy the inside and outside programming. The site will be completely fenced with three admission gates. Tickets will be pre-sold, private on-site security will be provided and Police traffic points will be established to ease the increased traffic for the area. Public transportation and carpooling will be promoted in all advertizing material. Many parking lots are available in the vicinity and since bus travel is free on New Year's eve the organizers are confident many attendees will choose the bus and skytrain as their method of transportation to and from the event.

The FEST committee was unable however, to give permission for this location until the surrounding residential community could be consulted. By the time First Night was prepared to start the consultation process it was September and the Molson Indy had just taken place. The City Gate Strata Councils were not open to the proposal and after many attempts to attend meetings with the councils and residents, the organizers had to concede their request for 1998 in hopes they would be successful for 1999.
FIRST NIGHT 1999

The organizers polled all of the residents of City Gate in January and February of this year with the assistance of the City Gate Inter-Tower Council. A questionnaire was hand-delivered to all residents requesting their input on whether they agreed or disagreed with having First Night at Science World. The organizers were delighted with a positive response of 68% in favour of the event. The FEST committee is now able to proceed with the planning and coordinating of this event, knowing the surrounding community has been consulted.

Attached as Appendix B is a proposed site plan with tentative stage and entertainment locations. A comprehensive traffic management plan will be established once all of the details of the events that are planned for BC Place, GM Place and the Plaza of Nations are known. First Night will be included in this process as the close proximity of all of these venues will dictate what traffic measures are taken.

CONCLUSION

It is recommended that Council approve the 1999 event list, the Vaisakhi Parade and First Night at Science World. Council is asked to consider not approving a later start time for the Vancouver Sun Run.

ATTACHMENTS TO THIS DOCUMENT THAT DO NOT HAVE ELECTRONIC COPY ARE AVAILABLE ON FILE IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE

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(c) 1998 City of Vancouver