According to CBC “ Hundreds of thousands of people are set to attend the Vaisakhi parade in Surrey, B.C., on Saturday, as the annual Sikh harvest festival draws the largest parade crowd of its kind outside of India.
Organizers estimate at least 600,000 people will attend the annual parade — with attendees celebrating delicious food, community and the Sikh faith's commitment to service and selflessness.
Road closures will be in place for the duration of the event, according to Surrey police, who said commuters should expect significant delays between 72 Avenue and 88 Avenue, as well as between Scott Road and King George Boulevard.
The colourful parade will kick off at 9 a.m. PT at the Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar on 85 Avenue. On The Coast10:10 Surrey Vaisakhi parade takes place this weekend
Akashdeep Singh, who has attended the parade since he was a child, has helped organize it for over half a decade now.
He said that the parade allowed the local Sikh community to showcase its traditions — especially that of serving free food, in honour of the traditions of seva and langar.
"It means more than just looking out for your own ... the ability for a Sikh to go and be there for everyone and anyone," he said on CBC's On The Coast.
"A lot of our events and programming and our celebrations definitely revolve around that." Everything you need to know about Vaisakhi
Vaisakhi celebrates the creation of the order of the Khalsa in 1699, a defining moment in Sikh history that gave the Sikh faith its final form.
Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the Gurdwara Sahib Dasmesh Darbar who has been helping organize the event since 2007, said it has grown from one that attracted 55,000 people to the massive celebration it is today.
"I think the growth has been really [about] ... a vibrant community in Surrey, the multiculturalism that is in Canada, other people wanting to learn about the Sikh faith and us obviously wanting to learn about our neighbours as well," he said. Moninder said that the parade had never seen any significant security breaches in the nearly two decades since it has been organized in Surrey.
But in light of the car-ramming that claimed 11 lives at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver last year, he said police and organizers would be stepping up security.
"Major arterial roadways are blocked [so] that cars and other larger vehicles are not able to make it through into the parade route," he said.
"So, it has been that way for a few years. But we are definitely upping the security just to make sure that people feel safe coming to the event." The Surrey Police Service advises families attending the event to have safety plans in place and keep children within eyesight at all times.
It also says drones would be prohibited over the parade.
Full details on road closures are available on the City of Surrey website. Organizers are recommending that attendees take transit to the event, which would drop them off near the parade's starting point.
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