3-day comedy festival could be coming to Vancouver’s Stanley Park

Organizers of a huge comedy festival are hoping to bring the event to Vancouver this year.

The Great Outdoors Comedy Festival currently has events scheduled in Edmonton, where it started in 2021, and Kelowna, Calgary and Halifax this year.

But organizers are hoping to bring it to Vancouver in September.

Trixstar LIVE is asking for the Vancouver Park Board’s approval to host it at Brockton Cricket Fields in Stanley Park from Sept. 15 to 17.

In a report to the Park Board, Trixstar said it wants to bring local and international talent to the festival and raise money for local charities and not-for-profits in the city.

Past festival headliners have included Bill Burr, Tom Segura, Amy Schumer, Melissa Villaseñor, Chris Redd, Donnell Rawlings, Chelsea Handler and David Spade.

Events have been held in Stanley Park in the past, although it has been a few years since a festival was held in the park.

The Skookum Music Festival was held in 2018 but failed to come back for another year.

The board credited the festival’s cancellation to changes in the event’s ownership and management structure.

In 2015, musician Jon Bon Jovi was slated to perform but the promoters of the event, Paper Rain Performances, were “proven unable to guarantee a properly-produced event.”

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It remains to be seen if the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival will be bringing some laughs to Vancouver but organizers said ticket prices are expected to fall between $69 and $399.

Trixstar LIVE said the event proposal has also been reviewed by the Stanley Park Intergovernmental Working Group, which includes representatives from xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil‐Waututh) peoples.

They did not identify any issues of concern, according to the proposal.