Get ready to slip-slide away longer this summer in the City of North Vancouver.
On Monday council voted unanimously in favour of bringing back the Slide the City and Car Free Day event this August and extending it to a two-day fun fest featuring a 300-metre (1,000-foot) water slide down Lonsdale.
The inaugural event took place last Aug. 22 and attracted around 15,000 visitors and 6,000 sliders.
According to staff it was the largest single-day event hosted in the city last summer and sold out in less than two weeks.
There were no police incidents or injuries on the slide but the popularity of the event led to some long lineups that raised some complaints.
Staff proposed extending the event to two days because of the positive response to the event, the difficulties of setting up and taking down the slide in a single day and the high demand for tickets.
Staff hope to alleviate slide lineups this summer by running the event over two days and selling around 4,000 tickets per day.
There are also plans to reconfigure the slide route to higher up Lonsdale to reduce slide speeds. Last summer the slide ran along Lonsdale from Victoria Park down to Fourth Street.
Along with the slide, the inaugural Car Free Day was held between Esplanade Avenue and Third Street, which allowed for live music, a kids zone, on-street dining and refreshments, vendors, bicycle demos and various other activities and info booths.
“Feedback from the slide participants, community and media during the day of the event was overwhelmingly positive,” reads the staff report.
Partial proceeds from the event go to charity. For this year’s event, city staff also recommend hiring an event planner, at a cost of around $10,000, which would be partially funded through ticket sales and sponsorships.
A traffic plan to deal with the influx of visitors will take into consideration transit, cycling, private shuttle buses, parking and street closures on Lonsdale.
Slide the City is a United States-based company and Coun. Holly Back noted that many slide-goers were surprised last year when they bought tickets to the event online and were charged in U.S. dollars. Mayor Darrell Mussatto agreed that it was important to make it clear for online purchasers that the cost is in U.S. funds.
“It was a pretty amazing day last year. I was there the entire day,” said Mussatto. “I think this was their most successful slide and the reason for that was, and I’m really convinced, our staff – the volunteers and staff went above and beyond on this to make it successful.”
