Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Cloverdale Blueberry Festival 2015

Let me just start off with the sad news. Cloverdale will not be hosting a blueberry festival in 2015.

This news was broken by the Cloverdale business association a few months ago due to lack of sponsors and lack of funds. There has been no update that it's back on.

In the past, the Cloverdale Blueberry Festival is held early August with the main attraction a Show 'n' Shine. I love seeing those classic cars!

It also has entertainers, pie eating contest, and vendors with produce for sale.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for next year.

The Healthy Earth coming to Cloverdale

I noticed a sign up in the former location of King Tut's on 176th Street near 56A Avenue, that The Healthy Earth deli, juice & smoothie bar is opening in July.

Overall a good idea but perhaps a little ambitious for Cloverdale. This is a town with at least one of every fast food restaurant out there. A cowboy town. Check your discerning tastes at the edge of town type of place.

For more information their website is www.thehealthyearth.com

Cloverdale Canada Day celebration July 1, 2015

Once again Cloverdale is hosting a big Canada Day celebration at the Cloverdale Millennium Park which has been renamed Bill Reid Millennium Park. The Millennium Park is located on the corner of 176th Street and 64th Avenue.

The gates open at 10am and the festivities end around 10:30pm with the fireworks.

This year's featured performers are Blue Rodeo at 9pm. More information on the entertainment line up can be found here http://www.surrey.ca/canadaday/42.aspx

In past years over 100,000 people have been in attendance so the big question is where to find parking in a town that's going to become a traffic nightmare. Free parking at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, enter off 60th Avenue, east of 176th Street. They usually open up the racetrack for parking. This usually fills up at some point in the afternoon on July 1 and the lot is closed. People also look for parking west of 176th Street in the subdivision between 60th Avenue and 64th Avenue. There is a park and a school in the area and the gates are open for cars. Lord Tweedsmuir on 180th Street and 60th Avenue has the gates open for parking too and not too many people park here until its time for the fireworks. It's a good spot to sit on the football field and watch them from.

Surrey's fast moving parking enforcement officers are all over Cloverdale on Canada Day making big bucks in fines. Make sure you don't park in a 2 hour parking zone if you're going to be away from your car longer than that. Other normal rules of the road apply. I see cars with tickets because they parked too close to a stop sign or they parked the opposite way from the traffic direction or they parked in a no parking zone. Don't even think of parking in the Cloverdale Crossing Mall across the street from the Millennium Park. They put up big signs at each entrance warning people there is no special event parking. And they hire security guards to watch where people are going when they get out of their car. If you go into a business, no problem. If you walk across the street, they'll call a tow truck. Don't risk parking, going into Tim Horton's and then cross the street with your goodies. The security guards might not see you, but if you leave your car there too long it'll be towed.

So there you have it. Plenty of free parking around Cloverdale, just do it legally.

Now for the big traffic nightmare part around Cloverdale, getting out. If you don't want to see the fireworks, then get moving. If you stay for the fireworks getting out of Cloverdale requires lots of patience. Around 10pm the police close off 176th Street between 57th Avenue and 64th Avenue. This is due to pedestrian safety. The streets will be clogged with people walking back to their cars. For some reason drivers think it's a good idea to head into one of the subdivisions and go around in circles and then end up back where the street is closed. Your best bet wherever you are is to head east to get out of Cloverdale even if its a bit out of your way because most everyone else is heading west. Drive up to 184th Street. From there head to either Highway 10 or Fraser Highway or further along if that suits your destination better. The farther away you get from Cloverdale the lesser the traffic, so don't try to navigate any of the subdivisions close to the fairgrounds unless you like circling back to where you started from.

Happy Canada Day!