In 2005, the Commercial Drive Festival launched the first community- driven Car-Free Festival in Vancouver. The Festival was wholly volunteer-organized and presented, involving over 30 core organizers and 300 volunteers. It was an enormous success, bringing over 25,000 people out to celebrate the community and party in the street.

Since then, the Festival happened in 2006 and twice in the summer of 2007, snowballing in popularity and attracting up to 40,000 people per day. Clearly, car-free days are an idea whose time has come. Car-Free Vancouver Day, on Sunday June 15, will usher in the next phase in this bold experiment that has been gradually happening in Vancouver for many years. This phase takes the car-free meme to the whole city, and represents the next level in our evolution toward healthy communities, authentic cultural celebrations, and car-free streets. On that day, FOUR communities will present their own Car-Free Festivals: Kitsilano, West End, Main Street, and Commercial Drive. Each Festival is envisioned and organized by the local core organizers, and each has a unique flavour.

Check the Community Festivals for more details on the individual Festivals. And then, choose your Festival and get involved! You can be an organizer, a pod-head, a spontaneous participant, or a day-of volunteer (for an hour or two, or for the whole day) -- whatever turns you on. You don't necessarily need to volunteer where you live -- and of course, you are free to rove from Fest to Fest throughout the city, and get a taste of different neighbourhood celebrations. You will meet great people, have lots of fun, and become part of the future of our magical city.

The City of Vancouver, both staff and elected officials, has been enormously supportive of this initiative, and continues to encourage us to create the city of our dreams. We thank them for their vision and support.