Bowfest turns 50

Our annual community festival, Bowfest is happening today. AS I write from home, a kilometre and a half from the festival field I can hear the band Queer as Funk getting everyone dancing. It turned out to be a beatiful day – blustery and cool but bright sunshine and clear skies. It looked like rain was in the forecast but we dodged it.

My friend Pauline Le Bel and I spent the day at our little table chatting with people about our initiative to fund the carving and installation of a Squamish welcome figure at our community centre. We raised $760 just from donations today. We need another $2300 by the end of September to pay our carver, Xwalacktun, to begin work on the sculpture.

The festival was the best in years. Since the pandemic, I have feared that Bowfest might fade away, but there is new energy, new people, a million new kids, and it feels like the community has come through a big transition. Even though we don’t recognize a lot of new faces, many of the Elders I spoke with today were really happy to see the energy and the new things going on in a way that seems to have secured a continuity for the deeply Bowen traditions that matter: Dog of the Year, the slug races, the preteen rock bands killing it on the MainStage, the Legion selling beer, and the parade.

It was the fiftieth anniversary of Bowfest this year and that was the theme, and it felt like a good, solid community event.