Photo: Nicholas Johansen

Construction continues in Kelowna's Waterfront Park this week.

The rejuvenation of the Island Stage in Kelowna's Waterfront Park is well underway, and it's expected to be completed within the next two months.

Kelowna's iconic Island Stage was constructed in the early 1990s on the man-made lagoon in Waterfront Park. It has hosted countless concerts and festivals over the years, including a number of Parks Alive shows, the Great Okanagan Beer Festival, Keloha and Island Time.

This past September, construction began on the project and the old stage was torn down. But with the front portion of the lagoon having now been filled in, the “island” part of the venue will be no more.

As of this week, work continues in the park. While an exact completion date is not known, City of Kelowna media relations manager Tom Wilson said project is expected to be completed in the next month or two.

City of Kelowna staff have called the previous venue “one of Kelowna's premier event spaces,” but it had "several constraints and functional issues that prevent it from realizing its full potential as an event hosting site.”

“Industry professionals have commented on the lack of festival space, stage and storage space, accessibility, and aging infrastructure that make it difficult to host events,” city staff said in a 2023 report to council.

The rejuvenation project is aims to increase spectator capacity and event space, improve accessibility and safety features and improve space for functional operations and logistics.

In 2023, the provincial government gave the City of Kelowna nearly $1 million for the project, from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport Destination Development Fund.

One of the first events scheduled to take place in the newly completed Waterfront Park is the Rosé Disco, a wine fest and concert featuring Felix Cartal, SkiiTour and others that's scheduled for July 19.