The African Descent Festival at English Bay will not be going ahead this weekend after the Vancouver Park Board denied the event a permit, a move organizers call “very unjust” and say they will fight in court.

In a statement posted Saturday, the Park Board said organizers “did not resolve outstanding issues from previous events in time to meet the necessary planning, safety and operational requirements for the 2025 festival.”

It said staff “made considerable efforts to support the event” by proposing alternative solutions, including relocating to the festival’s previous site at Thornton Park or postponing to a later date.

All of those options were declined, according to the board.

“English Bay Beach Park and facilities will remain open to the public this weekend,” the statement read.

“Any organized event in the park will be unpermitted and unsanctioned.”

Organizers push back

Event coordinator King Solomon told Daily Hive the Park Board’s claims are “not true,” saying the non-profit behind the festival finalized a payment plan with the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) in mid-July and made its first deposit before the permit decision was made.

He said the application for this year’s festival was submitted nearly a year ago, and alternative location or date options were only presented on Aug. 1, just over a week before the planned event.

“You can’t change the course of an event of this magnitude on such short notice,” Solomon said, adding that moving back to Thornton Park would have cut capacity from more than 40,000 people to about 5,000.

The festival, which moved to English Bay in 2023, also commemorates the legacy of Joe Fortes, a Black pioneer lifeguard who helped shape the beach as a public space.

Solomon said that history is part of why organizers have fought to keep the celebration there.

Solomon alleged that while the Park Board said they could hold an unsanctioned event, when crews arrived to set up on Thursday, police blocked trucks carrying tents, staging, and other equipment from entering the site.

“If you have enough resources to stop the festival, why can’t you use them to support it happening?” he said, claiming more than 100 police officers and park rangers were on site.

What’s next

The cancellation has left the non-profit “hundreds of thousands of dollars” out of pocket, Solomon said, and the group now plans to sue the Park Board.

Instead of the two-day festival, organizers say they will hold a protest at English Bay on Sunday, Aug. 10, at 5 p.m.

The rally will feature the event’s scheduled headliner, whom Solomon described as “the Michael Jackson of Africa.”

“We really want the public to know that we have been mistreated,” he said.

“We are trying to celebrate the pride and diversity of people of African descent and the contributions our community has made to Vancouver, B.C., and Canada.”

Daily Hive has reached out to the Vancouver Park Board and Vancouver Police Department for further comment. 

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