
The organizers behind one of Kamloops’ signature summertime events have announced they are pulling the plug after this year.
Kamloops Daybreak Rotary has been staging Ribfest annually in Riverside Park since 2012. This year’s event will be the last they put on.
Organizer Danica Wilkinson said Daybreak Rotary’s membership voted to end its involvement with Ribfest following a few years of increasing expenses. She said it’s also a big draw on the club's volunteer resources.
“Three years ago, we took a vote as a club and it was overwhelming that yes, we wanted to do Ribfest for three more years,” Wilkinson told Castanet Kamloops.
“So now coming into 2025, the third year of that, we thought we should redo the vote to see where the club is at, and unfortunately the club voted that we want to do a different project and move our energy into something new and something exciting.”
Wilkinson said sponsors helped to offset a lot of the increases in expenses in recent years.
'There's some sadness'
According to organizers, the 2024 version of Ribfest saw 80,000 attendees pass through Riverside Park over three days, raising more than $60,000 for the community and creating an estimated $5 million in economic spinoff.
Daybreak is not the only Canadian Rotary club getting out of the Ribfest game. A Penticton Rotary club last year pulled out of its event, and last month a club in Ontario decided to scrap its Ribfest. In both cases, rising expenses were cited.
Wilkinson said it was not an easy decision for Daybreak Rotary members to make.
“There’s a lot of different feelings, and there’s some sadness, but there’s also a lot of excitement about what the club can do going forward,” she said.
"We have so much energy and expertise — we know exactly how to put on a beer gardens and cook thousands of cobs of corn and do zero waste and everything else. What can we do with all those skills? Where can we go?”
Not the end of Ribfest?
The event has been a big draw, bringing tens of thousands of people to the downtown core over a three-day weekend each summer.
Howie Reimer, executive director of the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Association, said Ribfest’s organizers and volunteers have done a great job of staging a successful event that raises money for the community.
“Hopefully partnerships and organizations are able to reimagine another destination event or events to bring excitement and people together in Kamloops, particularly in the summer months,” he said. “We’ll certainly be listening.”
Wilkinson said Daybreak Rotary is also listening, and Ribfest organizers are open to working with any groups interested in taking over.
“It’s a great event and the community loves the event,” she said.
“If another organization or society wanted to take it on, we would definitely be willing to work with them. We’ve got a lot of assets we would either be willing to sell or share or figure something out with.”
The final Daybreak Rotary Ribfest will run from Aug. 8 to Aug. 10 in Riverside Park.