Oscar Connolly-Connell
Hastings Skatepark has long been a renowned spot in East Vancouver, predating the city’s legalization of skateboarding on streets in 2003. Its iconic, 11-foot bowls and street sections attract riders seeking challenging lines and high-speed runs.
(Vancouver Skateboard Coalition)
On sunny afternoons, the bowls normally hum with motion. Spectators gather around its edges, watching pro riders meander and glide as they perform stylish maneuvers.
For skaters, this is more than just a slab of concrete. It’s a cathartic outlet and a tight-knit community.
Vancouver has 10 other skateparks, but “for us, nothing compares to Hastings Skatepark,” says Oliver Tennant, director of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition.
This closure has triggered backlash from Vancouver skaters, with the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition as a crucial advocate for the skatepark, closed due to the heavily secured FIFA Fan Festival at Hastings Park.
“FIFA is taking away a very important public space, displacing thousands of skaters,” Tennant says.
“We met with FIFA in person, and it was a pretty disappointing meeting because it was less of an open discussion with the community to find a creative solution, and instead they just informed us there’s nothing they can do.”
PNE Amphitheatre, centrepiece of FIFA Fan Festival Vancouver. (Mackin)
Tennant explains that film companies pay the Coalition $4,000 per day for exclusive access to the skatepark. This money is reinvested in Vancouver’s skateboarding community. Hastings Skatepark, Oliver notes, urgently “needs maintenance due to constant use.”
The budget for the new amphitheatre at Hastings Park, the centrepiece of the city’s official FIFA watch party, has tripled in cost to $183 million.
Even so, Coun. Mike Klassen, in response to the closure, prioritized the Coalition’s capital request to resurface, repaint and re-coat Hastings Skatepark. It is being allotted $500,000 in the city’s 2027-2030 capital plan.
“My personal feeling is that I want to reward a community that’s done so much for itself,” Klassen says.
Meanwhile in downtown, another community carries out its daily rituals on public land.
At 1 p.m. on Granville Street, office workers loosen ties while tourists hover nearby, and construction workers count their loonies in line.
“Next! Smokie?”
Buns—ketchup, onions—everything runs efficiently. This routine began in the 1990s and, with the same sidewalk, vendors and hot-dog stands enduring to this day.
Still, as the smoky steam shrouds over Granville, so does uncertainty for the weeks ahead.
An uncertainty stemming from the FIFA Controlled Area, spanning a 2 km perimeter around B.C. Place and a 100 metre radius around the PNE until July 20.