Harrison Sunflower Festival

The Chilliwack Sunflower Festival has a new name and location in 2023. It’s now the Harrison Sunflower Festival and it takes place near Harrison Hot Springs.

Formerly located on a farm in Chilliwack, the new home for one of the region’s biggest sunflower festivals is in Agassiz. The festival’s first day at its new location was August 22nd. It’s last day of the season in 2023 was September 17th.

For details about the new event, see our article about the Harrison Sunflower Festival.

Click harrisonsunflowerfest.com for the attraction’s official website.

The Harrison Sunflower Festival

2023 is the first year of the new Harrison Sunflower Festival. From 2018 to 2022, the attraction was in Chilliwack. It’s now in Agassiz which is about 25 kilometres away from the previous site.

The Harrison Sunflower Festival is very similar to the Chilliwack version, just at a new location. There are still over 12 acres of sunflowers, dahlias and other types of flowers in bloom. Guests can also check out some non-flower displays and play some games as well.

The 2023 Harrison Sunflower Festival’s opening date was August 22nd. The festival closed for the season on September 17th.

NOTE: After the sunflower festival season ended, there was still lots to see at the same farm in October. That’s because the Harrison Pumpkin Festival happened. In 2023 the pumpkin festival ran from September 29th until October 29th.

Harrison Sunflower Festival Farm Barn — 5039 Lougheed Highway in Agassiz

Where is the Festival?

The Harrison Sunflower Festival is at 5039 Lougheed Highway in Agassiz. The festival fields are next to Cameron Road close to the turn-off for Harrison Hot Springs.

There is free parking on-site which is great since there’s no other way to get there besides driving (or maybe cycling). It’s about a 90-minute journey from Vancouver to the festival. Both the festival and Harrison area are beautiful, so it’s definitely worth the trip!

Hours and Rates

The festival runs daily from 10:00 am to 7:30 pm. The latest that people can arrive at the fields, however, is 6:30 pm. The 2023 dates were August 22nd to September 17th (although exact details varied subject to the weather and growing conditions).

Below were the prices for 2023. The prices listed were the ticket cost at the gate. Tickets purchased online 24 hours or more in advance cost $5 less.

Adults (ages 13 to 64): $15 on weekdays, $20 on weekends
Seniors (ages 65+): $12 on weekdays, $17 on weekends
Children (ages 3 to 12): $10 on weekdays, $15 on weekends

Children under the age of 3 have free admission. Season passes are available for purchase as well, but prices as of mid-August were still to be determined. At the Chilliwack Festival in previous years, season passes were around $70.

There is also a special deal for nearby residents on Thursdays. Known as Local Days, those who live in the Fraser Valley can visit the festival for just $5. “Locals” includes people who are permanent residents of Chilliwack, Abbotsford, Mission, Agassiz/Kent, Harrison Hot Springs, Hope and the Fraser Canyon region.

Visit the Harrison Sunflower Festival website for tickets and full details.

Harrison Sunflower Festival

What to Expect

The Harrison Sunflower Festival is home to nearly 15 acres of flowers with 3 km of pathways winding through them. The flowers aren’t all in bloom at the same time. They’re set up in a way that the blooming is staggered throughout the run of the festival. This means that the site looks fairly different in August compared to September.

The 2023 festival had around 45 different kinds of sunflowers. On top of that there were dozens of varieties of dahlias, zinnias and cosmos. Some of the sunflowers were nearly 10 feet tall!

Along with the flowers there are some other sights to check out. There’s a windmill, horse carriage, vintage car, swing sets and more. There is a food truck on-site selling food and there are free lawn games too.

Buying Flowers at the Festival

The Harrison Sunflower Festival has a farm store next to the fields where guests can purchase freshly cut flowers as well as bulbs and seeds.

There is also the U-Pick field which is specifically for guests who wish to cut and purchase their own flowers. There are five varieties of sunflowers in this field and they’ll likely cost just a couple of dollars or so per stem.

Click harrisonsunflowerfest.com for the attraction’s official website.

Tulip Festival and Pumpkin Patch

The moving of the sunflower festival to Harrison also includes the return of the Harrison Tulip Festival. Harrison was home to the first tulip festival in BC in 2006, and it stayed there for a decade before moving to Chilliwack (where it was known first as Tulips of the Valley and then the Chilliwack Tulip Festival). The new Harrison Tulip Festival runs from April 6th until early May in 2024.

Also new in 2023 is the Harrison Pumpkin Festival at the same venue as the sunflower festival. It ran from September 29th to October 29th this past year, so until a couple days before Halloween.