Vancouver City Council is being asked to step in to fill the 2026 summer celebration and fireworks gap left by the cancellation of the long-running Honda Celebration of Light.

A member motion by Vancouver mayor Ken Sim argues that free, accessible public events are especially important as residents face cost-of-living pressures, and notes the long cultural and economic role the Honda Celebration of Light has played in the city’s summer calendar.

If approved, City of Vancouver staff would be directed to plan and deliver a “one-night, City-enabled public fireworks event” to be held in early August 2026.

Additional $600,000 investment from the City for 2026

The municipal government would provide up to $2 million from City reserves, contingency funds, and/or other sources to cover the full costs associated with the event. However, the City already previously budgeted $1.4 million in 2026 to cover its Honda Celebration of Light costs for in-kind services, entailing policing, fire and emergency coordination, traffic operations, sanitation, and cleanup.

All things considered, this would peg the City’s net new contribution in 2026 at up to $600,000. The already-budgeted allocation of $1.4 million across all three nights would instead be reallocated to the wide range of expenses of putting on the fireworks for one night this year.

It is noted that this funding would be explicitly one-time and not a replacement for the broader mix of federal, provincial, and private funding that previously sustained the three-night Honda Celebration of Light fireworks event. It is intended to be a one-year bridge to help ensure the decades-long momentum of the summertime fireworks tradition continues this year, while efforts are made to find a solution for 2027 and beyond.

For this year’s one-night event, City staff would pursue potential sponsorship and partnerships, and report back to City Council by no later than the end of March 2026, with a confirmed concept, location, budget, and risk assessment, along with recommendations for the future of summer fireworks in Vancouver.

City of Vancouver is Metro Vancouver’s only major municipal government that does not organize its own annual fireworks events

In 2026, for the first time in many decades outside of the pandemic years, Vancouver will be without any public fireworks event. As recently as before the pandemic, Vancouver had up to five fireworks nights per year, with non-profit organizations behind the Honda Celebration of Light and New Year’s Eve fireworks, and Vancouver Fraser Port Authority organizing Canada Day fireworks.

Annual public fireworks events elsewhere in Metro Vancouver are directly organized and funded by municipal governments, with the City of Burnaby, City of Coquitlam, City of Port Coquitlam, and City of Surrey spearheading their own Canada Day events, for instance. Since the cancellation of the port authority’s Canada Day fireworks in downtown Vancouver, attendance at other Canada Day fireworks in the region has seen an explosion.

In stark contrast, the City of Vancouver has traditionally relied on the goodwill of volunteer-based, non-profit organizations and other third-party entities to fill its year-round major public events calendar.

The only exception is the annual Polar Bear Swim at English Bay, which is organized by the municipal government through the Vancouver Park Board.

Calls for renewed federal and provincial funding for Vancouver’s fireworks tradition

After more than three decades, British Columbia’s largest annual public event in 2026 was indefinitely cancelled in November 2025, with Honda Celebration of Light organizers blaming rising costs and the loss of federal funding that enabled the event’s post-pandemic restart, alongside reduced provincial support and declining corporate sponsorship.

The Vancouver Fireworks Society is the non-profit organization behind the event, which has been organized each year by local event production company Brand Live.

Brand Live is also the same company contracted to produce the five-week-long 2026 FIFA Fan Festival from mid-June to mid-July at the PNE fairgrounds.

Late last year, organizers told Daily Hive Urbanized that the 2026 Honda Celebration of Light was just under $1 million short. At the time, Brand Live indicated a revival of the three-night event was still possible, provided a willing party stepped forward to fill the funding gap.

Federal funding fell from about $450,000 in 2023 to zero by 2025/26, while provincial funding stagnated and was proposed for reduction, significantly reducing the real value of senior-government support. According to Sim, despite that, the municipal government had planned to continue providing in-kind services — such as policing, fire and emergency coordination, traffic operations, sanitation, and cleanup — worth an estimated $1.2 million to $1.6 million annually.

The Honda Celebration of Light historically drew about 1.3 million attendees each year across its three nights and delivered major tourism and economic benefits. With its absence, the mayor states, there is now a noticeable gap in Vancouver’s summer events calendar, particularly in the period after the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Sim’s motion also seeks permission to write to the federal and provincial governments, urging the reinstatement and increase of federal and provincial funding to enable the return and long-term viability of the Honda Celebration of Light.

This fireworks motion is scheduled to be considered by City Council in a public meeting on Feb. 4, 2026.

During the same public meeting, City Council will also consider Mayor Sim’s separate member motion on proposing free FIFA World Cup live screening events on BC Place Stadium’s giant centre video screens — during the days when the stadium is not hosting any matches — and at the new PNE amphitheatre during the FIFA Fan Festival.