The Steveston Salmon Festival parade will see a number of new and returning entries, but the one festival executive director Janice Froese is especially excited for this year, is a marching band from Calgary.
The Bishop Grandin Marching Ghosts is made up of students in Grades 10 through 12, who are enrolled in Bishop Grandin High School’s three-year music program. The marching band is frequently asked to perform at various events within Canada and internationally, making them much in demand and renowned.
“We are excited to have them,” Froese said. “This will be their first time performing at the salmon festival.”
The Bishop Grandin Marching Ghosts was started in 1986 and currently has about 110 members, made up of brass, woodwind and percussion players. About 60 of those members will come out to Steveston to perform at the festival.
“We’re quite mobile and unique as we can set up anywhere,” explained program coordinator Josh Malate, a former band member. “We recently played a private function for the premier of Alberta, during their party convention. We rolled right onto the convention floor, played O Canada and rolled right out.”
The marching band performed at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and they have participated in competition type performances throughout the United States, Italy and Japan.
“Japan is a hotbed for these kinds of performances,” Malate said. “The Japanese groups are incredibly good.”
To make things interesting and current, the band will add something new to their performance here.
“We are adding DJ beats behind some of our songs,” Malate explained. “I don’t know if anyone has done it before [for a marching band], but we’re excited. We are trying to get with the times.”
Besides the marching band, spectators can expect to see a Clydesdale horse, the YVR fire truck, vintage vehicles, decorated floats, military colour guards, politicians, dignitaries and representations from various community and cultural groups.
The parade starts at 10 a.m. at Garry Point Park and will wind through the streets of Steveston, past the community centre on Moncton Street to Railway Avenue. The 1.9 km route usually attracts 100 entries and is about two hours long.
