Canada Day photo gallery
As the temperature soared in Steveston, so did the crowds who poured into the village for the 68th annual Steveston Salmon Festival.
The mercury at YVR topped out at 28 degrees Celsius on Canada Day as an estimated 80,000 people flooded Stevestons streets throughout the day, with another 8,000 attending the Ships to Shore Festival along the villages waterways.
And everything according to both festivals organizers went off without any major problems.
Yesterday was spectacular, said the Salmon Festivals Janice Froese, who added that an estimated 30,000 crowd turned out for the parade alone.
With any big festival, theres always a few little problems, but everything ran to time and went very well overall.
Many of the food vendors sold out, including the chow mein people by 3 p.m. and some others before 5 p.m.
Froese said the estimated crowd was on the high side of the average attendance, but was good for a Canada Day falling at the end of a weekend.
It was nothing like a few years ago, when Canada Day was midweek. That day we got upwards of 100,000, she said.
When it falls on a weekend, more people tend to take off for a few days, so from that respect, the numbers were very good.
City of Richmond spokeswoman Kim Decker said they were very happy with the running of the third annual Ships to Shore over the three days June 29 to July 1.
Around 5,000 people on Saturday, 7,000 on Sunday and 8,000 on Monday turned out to see 14 ships from days gone by at Britannia Heritage Shipyard, including tall ships the Adventuress and the Canadian Navys Oriole.
