Back for the 8th year, Kelowna’s now annual tradition of the "Valley First New York New Year’s" celebrationreturns to Stuart Park and the Kelowna Community Theatre on Tuesday, December 31st to help families ring in an early New Year.
"Can you believe this is our 8th year?” asks Renata Mills, Executive Director of Festivals Kelowna. “As ever, this all-ages New Year’sEve celebration is a great way for our community to gather and welcome 2019,” enthuses Renata Mills, Executive Director withFestivals Kelowna. “Just like last year, thanks to mild temperatures we expect to welcome thousands of people to Stuart Park and the KCT between 6:00 and 9:00 pm for a short but sweet evening of revelry and fun”
Thanks to the generous support of the City of Kelowna and multiple sponsors, the event is always free to attend and will feature a variety of indoor and outdoor activities including skating on the outdoor ice rink, drop-in games in the “Kid’s Snow Zone”, free glow items and other goodies given out by the Valley First Street Team, and the return of the “glow” room under the Valley First tent. New this year will be ‘Human Zorb Bowling’ supported by the Downtown Kelowna Association, as well as the great team from FH&P Lawyers serving over 2,000 cups of free hot chocolate lovingly prepared by the chefs at the Kelowna Yacht Club.
Keeping your bellies full and energy up, there will be 4 food trucks onsite from 4:00 to 9:00 pm serving “glove friendly” portions of little donuts, hot dogs, smokies, fries, and more. If you’re feeling a bit cold or in need of an energy recharge, visit the “Valley First Warm-Up Zone” at the KCT featuring craft stations, drop in games, an air hockey table, face painting, and live music in the lobby. Little ones can bounce around in the City of Kelowna inflatables in the Black Box Theatre at the rear of the KCT, and for mom and dad, there will again be cartoons on a huge screen inside the main theatre, giving everyone a chance to sit and catch their breath before resuming the fun. When skaters hit the rink, they will groove to live musical performances starting at 6:00 pm from Kelowna favourite Jeff Piatelli and
“Jupiter Beach” performing high energy Pop covers. Continuing the dance vibe will be Classic Rock quintet “Heatwave” at 7:00, followed by Vernon’s own Andrew Allen and his new band “Via Barcelonia” at 8:00 pm. No stranger to the stage, Andrew has scored multiple Top 10 hits in Canada, including one of his biggest singles “Loving You Tonight” which sat on the upper reaches of the charts for more than 22 weeks and broke the US Top 30 while gaining over 4 million views on YouTube Rounding out the evening will be a fireworks display at 9:00 pm to ring in an early New Year for Kelownanians. Shot from the North West point in City Park, the show will be visible along the waterfront from The Sails to the Kelowna Yacht Club.
“We continue to be so appreciative of the tremendous support of our event partners and sponsors, including Valley First, City of Kelowna, Province of B.C., Kiwanis Club of Kelowna, FH&P Lawyers, the Downtown Kelowna Association, SW Audio Visual, and the Virgin Radio stations. We certainly couldn’t make this event happen without the help of these great corporate citizens and partners in our community.” explains Ms. Mills.
For more information about the event, check out festivalskelowna.com, the “Valley First New York New Years” event page on facebook, follow along on twitter @parksalive, search hashtag #NYEKelowna, or tune into 99.9 Virgin Radio Kelowna, 101.5 EZ Rock or AM 1150.