Golden Spike Days wraps its 49th year at Rocky Point

Port Moody’s biggest summer tradition just wrapped its 49th year. Golden Spike Days filled Rocky Point Park for two days, June 27 and 28, drawing an estimated 40,000 visitors over the weekend — making it one of the most-attended events anywhere in the Tri-Cities.

JUNO winner Nick Gilder and the Sweeney Todd Group headlined Saturday night, alongside the festival’s long-running Can-Can Dancers and a beer garden pouring from local breweries including Twin Sails, Parkside and Yellow Dog. Admission, as always, was by donation, with proceeds going straight back into funding next year’s event.

The festival is entirely volunteer-run by the Port Moody Golden Spike Days Society, which starts planning every September for the following summer. Amid the music and food trucks, it’s worth remembering the event commemorates the 1880s arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Port Moody — once the line’s western terminus — held on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the kʷikʷəƛap (Kwikwetlem) First Nation.

What to watch next: Port Moody’s Canada Day celebrations move to Rocky Point Park on Wednesday, July 1, picking up right where Golden Spike Days left off.