It’s been a long time coming and we have finally ticked off one of the biggest boxes for our organization. The purchase of a dedicated festival truck has been the dream for decades, and in the actual works for close to eight years. As a non-profit arts organization, we are used to making many sacrifices to make things happen. Saving for a purchase like this, which is by far the largest capital purchase in our organization’s history, takes lots of time. But with some luck, the continued support from our public funders, and a less expensive Festival overall due to COVID restrictions, this year we were actually able to afford a brand new 2021 Ford F-150 Powerboost, which happens to be the first hybrid model truck on the market. This truck not only has the power we need to transport our equipment like our sound system, tents, kiosks, staging, information booths and more but it is also incredibly fuel efficient which aligns well with our goal of reducing our carbon footprint. This six passenger vehicle will also double as performer transportation during the festival and replace as many of the fuel guzzling trips to the airport and ferry as it can. We intend to have this truck fully branded in just a few months, so expect to see it around town. Don’t be afraid to give us a wave. Big thanks to Cory at Chilliwack Ford for being super helpful and giving us a great deal! We would also like to send out a huge thank you to all of those who have lent us a truck in the past, especially you Ed Stenson. When Ed bought his current truck years ago, he knew it was going to be used for the Festival mostly and we can’t thank him enough.
If you own a business and think your logo would look nice on the back of our new truck, we would love to talk sponsorship with you! Send an email over to bryan@harrisonfestival.com and we can have a little chat about what that might look like.
We Bought New Risers Too
For those of you that are frequent patrons at our evening hall shows during the Festival of the Arts in July, you might notice a little something new in the Hall too. Through the BC Arts Council Infrastructure Program, we were able to purchase a brand new audience riser system at no extra cost to the Festival. This brand new, Canadian-made, $40,000 system is made of aluminum, will last for multiple decades, and is easy to set up and potentially move to different locations. Because we have not had a Festival inside the hall since we purchased it in 2020, we have not had a chance to see it in action yet, but we did use part of it as our staging at this years festival on the farm. We would like to thank all the volunteers that helped us set up our old wooden system, and again, especially Ed (and his truck) for all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into building it and setting it up every year. And of course, this purchase would not have been possible without the financial support from the BC Arts Council. We owe them a big round of applause!
