HISTORY

The Greater Victoria Festival Society

The Greater Victoria Festival Society was incorporated under the Society Act on March 3, 1992.

Our purpose is to engage and produce activities that are beneficial to the community as a whole. Our mandate is to develop and promote Civic Spirit and Pride with the creation of festivals, parades and special events.

Two of our major annual events are the Victoria Day Parade and the Santa Light Parade. These parades bring joy to our community and draw thousands of people to our beautiful downtown Victoria streets every year. Our Society also uses these events to leverage support for local charities like the Mustard Seed Food Bank as we install several collection bins along the parade routes.

We love bringing fantastic events to our communities which in turn bring our fantastic community members together!

SEE OUR EVENTS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Kelly Kurta

Kelly was born and raised in Oak Bay. She moved to Vancouver at 18 to live and work in the big city, finally settling into a successful career in Transportation and Logistics. She met her husband Rory in 1992 and has two beautiful girls, Kaelin and Mackenzie. The move back to Victoria was always the plan but came early in December of 2014 due to health reasons in the family and the request to join the Society once again in the administrative role supporting Ron Butlin. Due to Ron’s sudden passing in September of 2014, Kelly was voted into the Executive Director’s position and commuted for over a year between Vancouver and Victoria before settling in North Saanich at Canoe Cove. She chairs the Ronald McDonald House Vancouver Island Golf Tournament in August at Bear Mountain in her spare time and continues to work full time in transportation, remotely. She is thrilled to be back home and has the greatest team imaginable!