WATCH: It was the biggest party on the Island this weekend. Thousands attended festivities in downtown Victoria to celebrate the country’s 151st Birthday. As Luisa Alvarez tells us, the crowds were mostly well behaved.
A day after Canada’s 151st birthday, discarded Canadian flags were on the ground and were all that was left from Sunday’s sea of red and white.
The day after the party was all about the clean up: the tents came down and the legislature lawn got back to normal.
“I think everybody had a great time. The music was great [the] fireworks show was illuminating, the crowd loved the living flag as always there was great participation, so overall, I think it was a successful event,” said Alex Austin, who is helping out with the removal and cleanup.
But, this year, the cooler weather brought down attendance numbers.
“Usually, we have about 50,000 people. I would say by the end of the night we had ten thousand less than we usually do due to the weather,” said Victoria Coun. Charlayne Thorton-Joe.
Arrest numbers were also down.
In 2016, Victoria Police reported 36 arrests. Last year, numbers were down to 19 arrests and this year 17 arrests were made.
But, Victoria police reported they still saw a large number of intoxicated youth, as well as high numbers of liquor pour-outs.
But Thornton-Joe says that could be attributed to other factors.
“It’s the first long weekend after school is closed, university is out, that always contributes quite a large amount of intoxication by some. So we deal with that but every year the police and B.C. Transit are saying that the number of problem people is cut down.”
So, while the night ended with a bang. Victorians head into Canada’s 152nd year with a relatively clean slate of good behaviour.
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