The speakers, musicians, tents and tens of thousands of extra people are gone, and we have Squamish to ourselves again.
Whew.
The relief isn’t just that the hurly-burly of the Squamish Valley Music Festival is finished. After the troubling headlines that have accompanied other music festivals in B.C. this summer, there had to be thoughts that some tragedy might strike here as well.
Happily, that wasn’t the case. We hosted a crowd more than twice the size of our entire population and sent them away happy. The organizers deserve credit for learning both from the challenges of past Squamish Valley Music Festivals as well as from those of Pemberton and Boonstock, among others.
We, as a host community, can and should also take some pride in being good hosts and showcasing our community in the best possible light.
People are clearly looking at Squamish with new eyes, seeing what so many of us have already known for a long time. Seeing it from the observation deck of the Sea to Sky Gondola doesn’t hurt, of course.
It’s not surprising, though still disappointing, that some of those eyes are still full of condescension and stereotypes of the past. Exhibit A: a snotty piece that appeared in the Georgia Straight online entitled “Who killed the Squamish combination KFC and Taco Bell?”, bemoaning the disappearance of “the one decent restaurant in Squamish” and its replacement by one of our more successful and popular local eateries, Mag’s 99. (We think it was meant to be humourous, but unfortunately can’t be sure.)
That said, almost all press is good press. In this case, it highlights the fact that the former long-standing stereotype of Squamish – a dirty, smelly pit stop between civilization and Whistler – is finally, at long last, dead. Every person who has managed to cross the tracks at Cleveland Avenue has learned that, of course, but until recently that discovery has only happened in small batches – one carload at a time.
Now, it’s happening by the tens of thousands, and we will never be the same for it.
Remember this week, Squamish. Years from now, we may look back on this time as the moment this community truly came into its own.
