The Historic Town of Barkerville is looking forward to having people back in person this summer.
“Like everybody in the region, we definitely suffered as far as our numbers are concerned over the last couple of years so we’re looking forward to being able to invite more back to the park,” said James Douglas, Director of Public Programming.
“Because of the lifting of certain health mandates, we’re now able to do some our larger scale productions the way that we haven’t been over the last couple of years.”
He added it’s nice to have people back, but they still are a bit trepidatious when it comes to a lot of people being around.
Since the site opened for the season on June 4th, Douglas said they’ve already had something that they’ve been sorely missing; European visitors.
He said international visitors only make up about five percent of their yearly visitors, but they’re crucial because of international promotion and marketing.
“When people come and see a place like Barkerville, which they’ve not seen anywhere else in the world, they go back to their home communities and they talk about what they’ve seen,” Douglas explained.
Some of the larger events that Barkerville will be hosting this year includes the Indigenous Celebration on BC Day, the Labour Day Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, and the Grand re-opening of acclaimed Theatre Royal on July 1st, which Douglas says is traditionally the largest day in Barkerville’s calendar year.