Classic cars to add pizzazz to White Rock Sea Festival<\/p>\n
Published 7:30 pm Friday, May 1, 2026<\/p>\n
White Rock\u2019s 75th annual Sea Festival is going ahead as a two-day event this year \u2013 and the West Coasters Car Club show of classic automobiles will be a major part of it.<\/p>\n
Semiahmoo First Nation\u2019s decision to discontinue Semiahmoo Days \u2013 which had been a major component in the Marine Drive area\u2019s midsummer celebration for the past decade, including a popular salmon barbecue, a performance stage, and face painting, games and children\u2019s activities \u2013 had left questions about what the Sea Festival would look like going it alone.<\/p>\n
But in a an unusual display of unanimity, council voted April 13 to approve hosting the car show \u2013 which has in the past been hosted on SFN land \u2013 as part of Sea Festival on Sunday, Aug. 2, in three West Beach parking lots on Marine Drive.<\/p>\n
Coun. David Chesney, who had passionately championed including the event as part of this year\u2019s reduced Sea Festival, thanked staff for \u201cbringing this one home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year it certainly augments our sea festival and brings a little bit of snap and fizzle and pop to (the event),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mayor Megan Knight, who had preferred the idea of bringing the car show to the waterfront on another weekend, said she supported the idea nonetheless.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do love car shows, and I appreciate reliving my past by attending them \u2013 I\u2019m an old Mustang fan,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Council followed up that decision, at the April 27 meeting, with a brief discussion of the overall shape of this year\u2019s festival, during which recreation and culture director John Woolgar offered assurances that many of the popular attractions of the annual event would return in addition to the torchlight parade and the concluding fireworks.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently the high-level plan is to have the event go from Memorial Park down to Bayview Park (on West Beach),\u201d Woolgar said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to activate most of that area \u2013 maybe some in the area around the P\u2019Quals (or the White Rock). We did have some activity in that area last year which will continue \u2013 some face painting, balloon activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woolgar said the popular \u2018Mer-people\u2019 costumed characters and photo activities would also return to Memorial Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a new sponsor this year called School of Rock, which is going to activate the promenade from Memorial Park to Bayview Park. We\u2019re also looking at implementing some kids\u2019 activities along there, such as inflatables, that could be incorporated.\u201d<\/p>\n
In answer to a question from Coun. David Chesney, Woolgar confirmed that the entertainment program would continue both days at the Memorial Park stage adjacent to the White Rock Museum and Archives building, much as featured last year.<\/p>\n
Mayor Megan Knight asked Woolgar whether he felt there were still enough featured attractions to merit a two-day event, \u201cor would a one-day event be a better idea?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should evaluate that on how this year goes,\u201d Woolgar responded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this a good opportunity for us to see what it looks like with a two-day event without the participation of the Semiahmoo First Nation, and to see whether or not it\u2019s viable for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
On April 13, council heard that there were no obstacles to including the West Coasters Car Show as part of Sea Festival, which had been championed by Chesney.<\/p>\n
It would run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 2, after which parking would be opened up to the public prior to the road closure for the festival\u2019s concluding fireworks show.<\/p>\n
Woolgar\u2019s recommendation was for the car show to occupy the two parking lots west of the Oxford Street comfort station extending towards Bayview Park, providing a total of 204 parking stalls.<\/p>\n
He noted that West Coasters president Mike Herrick had wanted to accomodate 300 vehicles \u2013 a step down from the show\u2019s peak participation of 400 vehicles \u2013 but that 204 was the maximum the city could provide.<\/p>\n
Council unanimously supported Coun. Elaine Cheung\u2019s motion to endorse the suggested location and also the requirement that the car club pay the the $20 fee for each entry to the city to offset an estimated loss in parking lot revenue of up to $8,040, plus some staff costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Classic cars to add pizzazz to White Rock Sea Festival Published 7:30 pm Friday, May 1, 2026 White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,163792,87674],"class_list":["post-642694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-lower-mainland","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}