Easy Like Sunday Morning

Picture a perfect Sunday afternoon. The sun is shining, the community is buzzing, the BBQ is flaming, the bands are playing, and there no work to do at all.

That is the Sunday I have just had in Vancouver. Perfect. Commercial Drive, the coolest, edgiest street in town, was holding a ‘Car-Free Festival’, where they closed off the roads, and replaced noisy cars with brilliant entertainment.

Every block there was a jazz band, country group, Latin dance group, Moroccan drums or Jamaican reggae. In between, there were stalls selling anything from headscarves to Indian Head Massages. Restaurants and cafés spilling out into the streets, offering grilled salmon, ‘smokies’, ice cream and fresh watermelon.

This year, the Car-Free Festival had spread from just Commercial Drive, to other areas of Vancouver, including Kitsilano and Main Street. Each location had its own style- and I visited Main Street later on in the day- but the Party on The Drive was head-and-shoulders above the others. In the park, as the reggae band floated out their relaxed and rhythmic Caribbean tunes, spectators laid back on the grass while others danced in front of the stage or took advantage of the hula-hoops laid out for people to use.

The added bonus was that we were enjoying our hottest day for a fortnight, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Laura (French), Astrid and Anna (Germans), Priscilla (Brazilian) and I (English- quite a mixture!) whiled away our afternoon on the Drive, enjoying the music, sights and sounds. Afterwards, Astrid and Laura made their excuses, so Priscilla, Anna and I headed over to UBC for some food and a drink. We found a nice pub near the University campus, where we sat out in the sun and enjoyed as much of the day as we could muster. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end a great Sunday.