Departments > Parks, Recreation and Culture > Culture > Victoria, a Cultural Capital of Canada (CCC) > International Tall Ships Challenge

International Tall Ships Challenge

The City of Victoria has an exciting maritime history as a port city frequented by many sailing vessels over the last 200 years. This part of our cultural history was brought to life with the arrival of the Tall Ships to the City as their first port of call on the west coast in June 2005. The Tall Ships Challenge celebrated the sea, maritime music, culture, education and traditions. The four day festival was held June 23-26, 2005 and featured tours of the ships and a host of diverse activities for all ages.

The City's Inner Harbour was the primary hub of activity for the Festival. The festival site included the main stage that hosted live concerts and entertainment daily, a craft fair, access to board the ships, the maritime market, pirate school, kids zone, a model ship pond, Centre of the Universe or food courtyard.

The spectacular parade of sails was viewed by thousands of spectators along the shores of the Victoria Harbour and approaches. Also, during each evening of the festival, mock cannon battles were staged off the Victoria waterfront. These free performances drew thousands of spectators.

As lead up to the June Festival a popular school education program was created for k-8 students. A team of ten educators created a 100+ page Teachers' Resource Guide. The program was launched in April with distribution of the materials to 900 classrooms within public and private schools from Victoria to Nanaimo.

The Victoria Tall Ships Society partnered with the Island Illustrators and the Federation of Canadian Artists to develop a visual arts program. The committee juried more than 60 submissions and selected 37 artists to be "Artists on Site". Each artist was required to produce 3 works which were exhibited at the Maritime Museum of British Columbia in November and December 2005.

The significant financial support of the City and Department of Canadian Heritage through the Cultural Capitals of Canada program were instrumental in this NEW maritime festival getting off the ground and the positive financial situation of the Society as they prepare for 2008. The dates have been set for the return of the Tall Ships to Victoria – June 26-29, 2008.

Visit the Victoria Tall Ships Society website: http://www.tallshipsvictoria.ca for more details.

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