(Vaisakhi parade participants lead procession along Ospika Boulevard Saturday.  Photos 250 News)

Prince George, B.C. – The Sikh community of Prince George invited the city to a celebration on Saturday and many took up the invitation.

Vaisakhi is one of the most popular festivals marking the Sikh New Year, the beginning of the harvest and most importantly the founding of the Khalsa, the nation of initiated Sikhs.  And Saturday’s celebration was marked by a colourful parade that made its way from the south end of Ospika Boulevard to the parking lot outside CN Centre.

With an RCMP escort the parade, headed by the Sikh Motorcycle Club, Sikh and Canadian flags, headed out from the Guru Nanak Darbar Sikh Temple on Davis Road, made its way slowly down the hill on Ospika and wound its way to the arena parking lot.

People gathered there had the opportunity to sample the cultural foods offered in the many food tents that were set up.   Visitors mingled among the crowd of people attired in an array of colourful traditional dress and listened to the musical  entertainment that rang out on a warm, sunny afternoon.