Face painting just one of the activities for little ones at Sumerfest- photos 250News

Prince George, B.C.- The  signature annual event  for Downtown Prince George is  in full swing,  as  thousands  make their way  to  the corner of 6th and George in Prince George.

“Great sunny day” says Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall as he  looked out over the  festival site from the steps of City Hall.  Summerfest has  become  a very  successful event over the years, and the Mayor says his team’s plan is to try  and create more events like this  that would  make more use of Veteran’s Plaza in front of City Hall.  “As we try and increase the use of the front of City Hall,  it has been used a couple of times this year, and we would ike to see it used more to entice groups to come down here and we ( the City) need to kick in,  in partnership  somehow just to utilize this area more.”

( at left, 3 year old  Aiden Frenchcryderman tosses the die in the  Kidz Zone Snakes and Ladders game,  while at right, 7 year old Alexis Patterson takes the cockpit of  the 396 Air Cadets Glider)

The event today has  several streets  closed to vehicular traffic,  and that  helps create the “mall” feeling  says Mayor Hall.  Pedestrian malls are  popular in many  cities across the country,   and the Mayor says  it is an idea  worth considering “We’ve had people come to us and say  how about closing down this particular street and turning it into  a  mall and only allow emergency vehicles and transit and  I think it’s a great idea, but it’s going to be up to those people who   know  more about road safety,  our engineers to  make something  like that work.   The corridors downtown   facilitate emergency vehicles and first responders, so we have to take that into consideration  but I think it’s a great idea.”

Of course, that kind of closure would only be for the summer months,   and Mayor Hall says there are  other ideas that could be  incorporated “I would like to see truck and food vendors come downtown, create a plaza type atmosphere similar to what we have over at Canada Games Plaza.”

( at left, Jos Van Hage  releases a butterfly in the butterfly house,  while at right, Kulwinder Bhatal and husband Parmjeet serve up mini donuts)

Previous studies  on the downtown have  suggested  a market ,  like the Farmers Market,  would be a big draw  for the downtown,  and the Mayor says  adding  food trucks would be  in addition to the ‘market’ feel “Some folks have talked about  having what we have here today  for Summerfest ( with multiple vendors)  but send it all the way down George Street  right to the Courthouse, and block off George Street, and have the  people who have businesses along  there open up on Saturday and Sunday   and try to get that plaza style atmosphere.”

He says  in the winter, the Canada Games Plaza could be the site of  this kind of event “We’ve got two  great locations downtown ( Veterans Plaza and Canada Games Plaza)  that I think we’ve got to utilize a lot more.”