After six years in Oliver the annual Sunshine Festival is ready for changes to bring in bigger attendance and a stronger identity, something organizers are excited to tackle in 2017 by taking a new direction with the community event.

“We saw peak attendance at the festival of around 3000 people in 2014,” says organizer Carol Sheridan, “and are so grateful for the support we have received from the Rotary Club and other local sponsors and those in the community who did come out to enjoy the weekend.” Sheridan cites weather challenges, competing with the large number of other special events in the Okanagan that same weekend and the permanent loss of the midway rides as some of the issues impacting the drop in the number of people who came to the event in the last 2 years. “We felt that a reinvention of the festival to highlight Oliver’s diversity and heritage and bringing in a bigger headline music act on a different weekend to draw in more attendance was the best way forward.”

The Oliver Sunshine Festival will take place a few weeks later than usual this summer, running all day (11:00am-11:00pm) on Saturday August 19. The festival will focus on showcasing Oliver’s unique heritage and the incredible agricultural nature of the area through a full day of free family-friendly activities and entertainment in Community Park and on the community stage.

Source: Oliver Parks