Our Hyack Multicultural Parade

 

We headed uptown this morning at 11:00 for the annual Hyack Parade, soaking in an hour and fifteen minutes of prime civic pageantry. The Hyack Festival is a New Westminster institution, a community tradition that has been rolling down Sixth Street for over half a century.

 

Things have certainly shifted a bit since the COVID closures. We’ve noticed far fewer out-of-province floats or large high school marching bands making the trek these days, though somehow the folks from Marysville, Washington, always manage to get here!

Interestingly, it used to be billed as an International Parade, but I noticed this year it was explicitly advertised as a multicultural one. A wonderful cross-section of Canadian ethnic communities takes part, marching right alongside the traditional hometown staples like the city's Fire Department, the Scouts, local teams, and entrants from local businesses.  Clubs such as a local owners of antique Ford Thunderbirds and Fraternal organizations like the Shriners always show up.

The weather today was a little mixed, but thankfully there was no rain and we were actually treated to quite a stretch of really blue sky. We always attend. It just wouldn't be May in New West without it.

New West's Hyack Parade 2025

What a perfect day for our parade this year!  Weather around this date can be rainy or it can be cold.  Today, it was 21C with sunny sky.  

Our parade kicks off the summer season of regional festivals and we had visiting floats and marching bands from the Okanagan and a few from Washington State.  This is traditionally an international parade and although the long weekend in Canada was last weekend's Victoria Day, there is generally participation from west coast states over the US Memorial Day Weekend.  We wondered how busy it'd be as there is much reduced border traffic due to the political situation in the south.  I assume there also may have been a few city restrictions this year because of a lot of street work uptown.  

Things seemed to get underway on time at 11:00 am.  I think there were around 86 entries and the procession lasted around an hour and a half.

People were happy to get out in a little sunshine because it has been rather scarce recently.

The International Hyack Parade

On the Saturday of the US Memorial Day long weekend, our city of New Westminster, BC hosts a parade.  It's sort of the kick off to the summer US/Canadian local festival circuit.  This year it was a bit short.  Although fairly well attended by the community, there seemed far fewer marching bands and floats this year.

We drove up and parked on the Royal City Mall.  We generally do, even though we have to go through a blocked off street open only to residents of Princess Street.  It stayed cloudy but the rain held off.  The temperature maxed out at around 10 or 11 degrees Celsius.

Today's parade started pretty much on time and lasted for over an hour and a quarter.  We didn't follow to the food trucks near the end of the route in Tipperary Park today.

Ten Images from the 2023 Hyack Parade

My small city of 85,000 people in the center of the Metro-Vancouver region was able to throw our annual International Hyack Parade again!  

We were happy to see the floats and participants from neighboring Washington and Oregon states again.  Some old familiar guests appeared, such as Levenworth, Winachee, and even Spokane.  This made this year's event feel as though we've finally thrown off the shackles imposed by those depressing pandemic summers.  Although Canadians already had our long-weekend as Victoria Day, the US Memorial Day weekend gives us a chance to host the first-of-the-summer, local parade for the Pacific Northwest region.  This year's parade was more than an hour.  Still, we missed some of the usual participants such as the WA and OR high school marching bands.  I missed some usual New Westminster and local area groups too!

The weather turned sunny about four hours too late for the 11:00 am start but at least there was no rain today.

The Hyack International Parade of 2022

Life feels as though it is getting more and more normal.   In New Westminster, BC this means hosting the annual Hyack Parade on the US Memorial Day weekend.  I believe last year would have been the fiftieth event but things were not normal due to the COVID-19 situation.

So, with great fanfare and relief, things went off well this morning at 11:00 am.  There was a bit of mist on one occasion but no rain fell today.  This parade has always attracted participants from Washington and Oregon states as well as other parts of British Columbia.  It kicks off a regional 'parade circuit' of the summer and fall. 

I noticed a few missing high school marching bands, including one from Seattle.  Some of the floats were smaller and a few were missing too.  Yet it seemed like a good turnout today.  We were happy to see one of the big traditions, of our little city, continue!

I've included eleven photos below.  They are not in chronological order and I chose just half of the ones I took.

Our Hyack Parade 2019

When looking at the longterm weather forecast in the middle of the week, it first promised a good weekend. We considered taking Kimchi, our EV, on an overnight BC trip. Yet, as we got closer to Saturday's predictions, we became aware it was going to rain. As long as the weather wasn't going to be nice we thought to stay in town for our annual Hyack Parade.







The rain came exactly and most doggedly during the parade's 11:00 to 12:00 timeframe. We parked on the roof of the Royal City Mall and spent the parade on the sidewalk in front of London Drugs. The spirits were good even though the weather wasn't. Our parade kicks off the summer season and always hosts plenty of festival floats from Washington State and BC.

We enjoyed ourselves although the weather felt more like our city's Santa Parade than this May event.







It was over much too soon!