North Vancouver celebrated Canada’s 150th birthday with festivities and live music all afternoon and evening at Waterfront Park on July 1, 2017.

In 2017 a special evening component of the annual Canada Day event included free concerts with the bands Arrival (an ABBA tribute band), Dreams (a Fleetwood Mac tribute band) and the legendary Tom Lavin & The Powder Blues Band.

Note: This was a one-time event. It won’t be happening again in this format and location in other future years. Canada Day events do still take place in North Vancouver on July 1st, just not at Waterfront Park. For details about what’s happening in 2023, see our article about Canada Day at the Shipyards.

Canada Day at Waterfront Park

Every year the Rotary Club of Lions Gate hosts the North Shore’s largest Canada Day celebrations in North Vancouver with an afternoon event that attracts thousands of people.

The festivities take place at Waterfront Park which is right on Burrard Inlet just a 5-minute walk west of the Seabus exit at Lonsdale Quay.

Activities at the family-friendly Rotary-sponsored Canada Day event include live entertainment, all sorts of kids’ activities, a pipe band and food for sale. It’s an exceptional community event and highly recommended, especially for North Shore locals and young families.

Most years the North Vancouver Canada Day event runs from around noon until 4 pm. In 2017, however, there was also an additional Canada 150 evening event running from 6:30 until 10:30 pm. You didn’t want to miss it!

For more information on the July 1st afternoon activities at Waterfront Park, click North Vancouver Canada Day. For details about the evening concerts, see below.

North Vancouver July 1st Concerts

To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary, the Rotary Club of Lions Gate hosted a special free evening event at Waterfront Park that included live bands, a beer garden and fireworks.

The evening event ran from 6:30 until 10:30 and was one of the Lower Mainland’s best places to spend the Canada Day evening.

Canada Day Bands

The live music line-up for the North Vancouver Canada Day evening was impressive and include the following bands:

• Arrival – a Vancouver-based ABBA tribute band. Singing as the original ABBA superstars of Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Björn and Benny are Stephen Manning, Tracy Masson, Rachael Chatoor and Bob Van Velzen.
• Dreams – a Fleetwood Mac tribute band with many of the same musicians as the Arrival band including Tracy Masson, Rachael Chatoor, Todd McGarvey, Mario Parente and Ray Doucet. These guys are good!
• Tom Lavin & The Powder Blues Band – the evening’s headliner performance and Canada’s original Blues band with lead singer Tom Lavin and over 1 million records in sales.

In addition to the above evening concerts, the following bands also played earlier in the afternoon:

• Tiller’s Folly – an acoustic roots band.
• Apollo’s Crush – a local party band.
• Marcus Mosley Chorale – a North Shore gospel choir led by Marcus Mosley formerly of the Sojourners.

Canada Day Fireworks

The July 1st celebrations and evening concerts at Waterfront Park finish with Canada Day fireworks in Burrard Inlet.

The fireworks take off from a barge off Canada Place in downtown Vancouver. The Waterfront Park venue is one of the best places in the Lower Mainland to view the pyrotechnics from, however, as North Vancouver’s Lower Lonsdale area is usually less crowded than downtown Vancouver, plus the view includes the Vancouver skyline in the distance.

Tips and Advice

Here are some suggestions on how to make the most out of your Canada Day experience on the North Shore:

• Take public transit – although parking will be impossible, transit in the area is convenient. Waterfront Park is just a 5-minute walk from Lonsdale Quay which is connected via a 15-minute Seabus ride from Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver.
• Spend the day in Lower Lonsdale – family-friendly activities take place at Waterfront park from noon until 4 pm and there are also activities around Lonsdale Quay and Shipbuilder’s Square throughout the day and the entire area is great to explore.
• Take things to the park – pack a lawn chair or blanket to sit on, plus something warm to wear after the sun goes down. During the day though, if it’s sunny, don’t forget your hat, sunscreen and water bottle. Waterfront Park is right on the water, but can still get pretty hot.

Other Information

Click North Shore for ideas on other things to do while in the area.

Click North Vancouver Canada Day Celebrations for more information about the afternoon activities at Waterfront Park on July 1st.

Click Canada Day in the Lower Mainland for other July 1st events in other parts of Metro Vancouver.