New Year’s Eve celebrations will once again be anything but normal with the cancellation of official events by the provincial government.
Some Okanagan establishments have adapted to the new restrictions.
“Once again, to use the most overused word of the last 20 months, restaurants have had to pivot, make changes and do what they can,” said Mark Burley, Downtown Kelowna Association’s executive director.
But the Association says there are a number of places people can go tonight.
“They are still continuing with celebrations, restaurant-style, but of course bars and pubs are closed. But, you can still go out to the West Coast Grill, for example, for a four-course meal,” said Burley.
“Kelowna Yacht Club has a thing for members there. It’s a sit-down dinner where you can’t get up and move around. BNA is opening up at 8 o’clock tonight and has a thing going on, like many of the restaurants downtown.”
The much anticipated and well-known New York-themed event that’s put on by Festivals Kelowna has again been cancelled, something the organization says is quite a letdown.
“The team was very disappointed,” said Renata Mills, Festivals Kelowna’s executive director.
“We were 99 per cent done. The last thing I had to do was draft emcee notes, then bam, the hammer fell and everything had to stop.”
Festivals Kelowna is taking the cancellation in stride, and already looking forward to hosting its 2023 New York New Years’ downtown celebration next year.
“I’ve got next year fully planned. I just have to take the book off the shelf. So that’s the approach we are taking, like you know, too bad, but I have to give credit to all of our supporters and partners. They’ve been very understanding,” said Mills.
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