For the first time in recent memory, Kelowna's celebration of Canada Day won't include fireworks.
Festival's Kelowna Executive Director Renata Mills says the recent flooding along Okanagan Lake made it impossible for organizers to make it a safe event on the evening of July 1st.
"Fireworks are simply delayed. We know we get 30,000 plus people along the lakeshore. The parks aren't really in a position to welcome people just yet. We need to give them time to dry up and breath. We would rather do a real smash up job for Canada 150. We have a bigger fireworks display planned and so August 5th is when we have postponed them to. It is the BC long weekend, so we are hoping that our visitors will still be in our community and our citizens will put aside that evening."
Mills says the fireworks on August 5th will start at 9:30 pm.
"We are just in the early stages of looking at what else we can do leading up to the fireworks, so again, continuing that celebration all summer long", Mills added.