British ColumbiaThe year was 2000. Vancouver’s decade of summer firework shows was in jeopardy due to a lack of long-term funding. And the Province newspaper wrote a headline that led to an infamous nickname.Ironically, origin of phrase dates back to one of the first times the fireworks were under threatJustin McElroy · CBC News · Posted: Nov 28, 2025 9:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Vancouver’s annual Celebration of Light fireworks festival began in 1990, but organizers have indefinitely suspended operations for the free event. (Gian Paolo Mendoza/CBC)The year was 2000. Vancouver’s decade of summer firework shows was in jeopardy due to a lack of long-term funding. And the Province newspaper wrote a story that led to an infamous nickname.“Vancouver: A City With No Fun,” read the headline.“We’ve become a little bit of a puritanical and boring city,” said then-tourism minister Ian Waddell in the article, which used the uncertainty over the future of the fireworks — sponsored by cigarette company Benson & Hedges until they pulled out due to new federal anti-tobacco advertising regulations — to talk more broadly about the culture of Vancouver. “I think the city’s yearning to have fun,” said Waddell. “The city itself can make the city fun.”In the aftermath of the Molson Indy Vancouver race being cancelled and its NBA team leaving to Memphis, the nickname of “No Fun City” flourished in everything from podcasts to music videos to even university thesis papers. A quarter century later, the story has come full circle: it got a fresh hearing after Wednesday’s announcement that the Celebration of Light fireworks festival was indefinitely cancelled.“When you couple it with cancellations for other events — Canada Day fireworks, we’ve seen the mural fest go under, the Dragon Boat [ Festival] is struggling, questions around [the Pride parade] — it just kind of speaks to the larger question around austerity budgets,” said Vancouver Coun. Sean Orr. “Hopefully the federal government either stands up, or maybe some rich philanthropist can step in.”LISTEN | Justin McElroy and Stephen Quinn discuss the cancellation and Vancouver’s ‘No Fun City’ reputation:This is Vancouver28:37“No Fun City” returns as Vancouver fireworks cancelledVancouver’s Celebration of Light fireworks festival has been cancelled, and organizers are blaming increased costs and decreased government funding CBC’s Justin McElroy joins Stephen Quinn to do a little fact checking — and to explore the culture behind one of Vancouver’s most infamous nicknames City blames province, province makes no promisesThe announcement of the fireworks cancellation came the day after a City of Vancouver budget with $120 million in cuts from planned 2026 expenses, but the two are not connected.The city covers the funding for policing and cleanup for the fireworks, while the Celebration of Light’s financial issues stem from inflationary cost pressures while grants from the federal and provincial governments have decreased. “We’re going to ask the province and the feds to really step up,” said Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim.“They benefit from it big time in terms of all the tax revenues from it, but also they have the ability to fund these things.”Detailing the exact amount of arts funding provided from governments is tricky, because the programs they use to provide such funds can change from year to year.But from 2017 to 2025, the amount the City of Vancouver gave to “cultural grants” in its budget increased by 56 per cent, from $11.2 million to $17.5 million. At the same time, the amount provided by the province from its two largest pots — Community Gaming Grants and the B.C. Arts Council — increased by just 11 per cent, from $159 million to $177 million. For her part, B.C. Tourism Minister Anne Kang defended the amount the provincial government spent on cultural events and said she was a fan of the fireworks, but made no guarantees they will continue. “My ministry will continue to be working very closely with them to support solution-oriented conversations,” she said. When Sim was asked what his leadership was doing to ensure Vancouver wasn’t a no-fun city, his office mentioned allowing drinking in parks, expanding patios and pop-up plazas, and supporting next year’s FIFA World Cup. “We can do our part in the city to make it easier to get a permit, to open up a restaurant, to make our streets safer, and do everything we can to build vibrancy on the streets,” he said. WATCH | Celebration of Light cancellation brings lament from politicians, but no new funding:Fireworks cancellation brings back ‘No Fun City’ fearsThe cancellation of Vancouver’s annual Celebration of Light fireworks festival brought plenty of response from politicians Wednesday. But as Justin McElroy reports, it also brought discussion of one of Vancouver’s least flattering — or least fun — nicknames for itself.Sinking like the Sea Festival?It also bears mentioning that this isn’t the first time the future of the fireworks has been in question — far from it. In the 2000s, threats of cancellation without more government and corporate support became such a tradition that when it happened again in 2009, the Vancouver Sun said it was “not just a fundraising tactic this time around.”There has been speculation that the fireworks could be resurrected in 2027 — after the FIFA World Cup and the resources it has required has come and gone — but many business associations say there has been a long-term trend that threatens the viability of many events. “There’s of course all the things you expect: the labour, the bands … but it’s all those underlying costs,” said Jane McFadden, executive director of the Kitsilano 4th Avenue Business Association, which oversees the annual Khatsahlano Street Party. “Last year I applied for six [government] grants and I got one of those grants … it’s a bit of a gamble, we have really strong supporters, and we hope they come to the table every year.” It’s possible that in another 25 years, there’s another story about the potential demise of the fireworks.But as Coun. Pete Fry noted, before the fireworks there was the Sea Festival — a beloved tradition in Vancouver’s West End for three decades, but one that slowly faded away in the 1990s as the fireworks began their ascent.“Maybe it’s not fireworks, maybe it’s something else, but let’s make those opportunities,” he said.ABOUT THE AUTHORJustin is the Municipal Affairs Reporter for CBC Vancouver, covering local political stories throughout British Columbia.
Vancouver fireworks cancellation brings back ‘No Fun City’ fears
