SFDS Spring Fair — Burnaby Shows Up

There’s a particular kind of Saturday in Burnaby that you can only get on a sunny afternoon in May, on a field full of bouncy castles, food trucks, and a few hundred families who’ve all decided this is where they want to be.

That was SFDS Spring Fair this weekend.

Pony rides under the trees. A meltdown obstacle course covered in kids. Two musicians on the main stage doing their best against the noise of a thousand happy people. A long line at every food truck and an even longer one at the inflatable castle.

I spent the afternoon walking the grounds, talking to neighbours, and stopping at every booth I could. I met the RCMP officers running the recruitment table — good people, doing real outreach, the kind of community policing presence that matters. I watched kids paint round canvases at the art station, each one a tiny window into how a child sees Burnaby.

This is what a thriving neighbourhood looks like. Not in a strategic plan, not in a press release — in a field, on a Saturday, with everyone showing up.

Events like the SFDS Spring Fair don’t happen by accident. They happen because of volunteers, parent councils, school staff, and local organizers who put in months of work for a single afternoon of joy. That work deserves more than a thank-you. It deserves a city that funds it, protects the spaces it happens in, and makes it easier — not harder — to bring people together.

I’ll keep showing up to these. Not because it’s an election year. Because this is the Burnaby I know, and it’s the Burnaby worth fighting for.

Thank you to everyone who organized, volunteered, performed, served food, walked a pony, or just brought a kid out for the afternoon. You are what makes this place home.

— Garnet