With the Celebration of Light fireworks competition kicking off in Vancouver on Wednesday night, residents of the city's West End are both excited and concerned about what the event may bring.

Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert is asking the public for help so that the fireworks won't draw crowds of obnoxious drunks or leave huge piles of garbage like it has in previous years.

"Leave your trash at home, and leave your trash talk at home," Herbert said Tuesday at a press conference.

Herbert said people from his neighbourhood may have been called derogatory names during past Celebration of Light events. In light of recent violence against gay men in the community, he decided to put out a call for respect.

"It's a great neighbourhood, widely diverse, and we've seen unfortunately too many hate crimes and beatings of people lately in our community and that concerns us," he said.

"That's why we're out here to say, ‘Hey, respect our neighbourhood, just as we would respect yours. Respect the people here and let's have fun.'"

Const. Lindsey Houghton anticipates between 200,000 and 300,000 people to show up for the Celebration of Light, and said there will be many police officers around.

"We look forward to seeing all the smiles on kids' faces as the fireworks go off, and the wonder in their eyes, and we're not going to have any tolerance for the hooligans or people wanting to come down here and cause problems," he said.

Heaps of trash left behind after the fireworks also concern West End residents.

John Merzetti of West End Cleanup knows first hand about the mess.

"A lot of the time you'll find after the event the streets are littered with trash, the beach is littered with trash, side streets, everything," Merzetti told CTV News.

"We wish we didn't have to exist, but we do, and it does get frustrating when you've cleaned a block and then by the time you come around you find more trash on the other corner."

Merzetti believes the main problem is there aren't enough garbage bins and thinks the city should do more to supply them.

"During the Olympics they put up a number of hoops with plastic bags in them, up and down Robson and Granville, (and) all the main streets," he said.

"Why haven't they left them up there, or at least put them up for an event like this, or throughout the summer? Because I think people would tend to use them if they were there."

To view road closures during the Celebration of Light click here.