VANCOUVER – The annual fireworks celebration in Vancouver's Coal Harbour won't be taking place this year as changes are coming to the city's New Year's Eve festivities.
Vancouver New Year's Eve Celebration Society announced Thursday that events are being moved from Coal Harbour to Concord Pacific Place and east False Creek.
To accommodate the change, the community celebration including the fireworks display is taking a one-year break.
"The new home at east False Creek provides us with the greater flexibility required to fully exercise our ambitions of staging an accessible, world-class event that sparks inspiration, a sense of place, and civic pride," said Dani Pretto, chair of VNYECS in a news release.
When the celebrations move to Concord Pacific in December 2020, the new location will use multiple fireworks barges. There will also be exterior lighting displays on buildings – such as at Science World – that will be synchronized with the fireworks.
"We are proud to have supported this event for four years and now to be hosting this family-friendly event at Concord Pacific Place," said Matt Meehan, senior vice-president of planning for Concord Pacific.
"There is a long history of hosting events like Expo '86, the Concord Pacific Dragon Boat Festival and the 2010 Olympic Games on this site. Family events like this will continue on our community pop-up park and long into the future on our fifth and final downtown park in Concord Pacific Place."
Even though the main celebration won't be happening this year, VNYEC said there will be pop-up community celebrations around the city to ring in 2020. Details on those events will be announced closer to Dec. 31.
"We appreciate the public's patience and understanding that this will be well worth the wait. Concord's New Year's Eve has quickly grown into becoming not only one of Vancouver's largest flagship events, but also one of the largest New Year's Eve celebrations in all of Canada," Pretto said.
"We are proud of what we have accomplished at our Coal Harbour location over the last four years, and we thank the community and all of our partners, especially Concord Pacific, for their elevated support for 2020."
