This decision wasn’t easy and comes after HOURS of debating and discussing all possible alternatives as well as consulting with several trained event safety specialists and with the well-being of our community, business owners, vendors, guests and especially our volunteers, at the forefront.

With extreme heat expected and temperatures feeling like 46°C or higher, we have a responsibility to ensure the East Lions Community Centre remains available as a City cooling centre for community members who need it most. We also have a responsibility to not put our volunteers (most of which are younger and more susceptible to heat related illness) in any undue danger. In addition to the extreme heat, we have also been monitoring the risk of severe thunderstorms and strong winds during event hours, which are extremely likely and would create additional safety risks on top of the extreme heat.

We know many people were looking forward to celebrating with us, and we are truly sorry for the disappointment. We put month and months of time and effort into planning this event and to not see it go forward is heartbreaking but it isn’t worth putting people at risk.

Thank you to our volunteers, organizers, sponsors, vendors, and community partners for all of your hard work and support.