What has become an early-August mainstay in Kamloops for over the past decade has been given a new breath of life.

“The Kamloops Sports Council is thrilled to announce that it will carry forward Kamloops Ribfest in 2026, ensuring the continuation of one of the community’s most cherished summer traditions,” confirmed the Sports Council in a news release dated for a Thursday unveiling.

The announcement ends months of uncertainty for downtown businesses, as well as the City of Kamloops, as the fate of the summer staple in Riverside Park had been hanging in the balance.

Daybreak Rotary had previously announced its intention to step away from organizing Ribfest in January of 2025 — well in advance of last summer’s event.

But some behind-the-scenes drama would leave the viability of a 2026 event — and beyond — as a question mark as the Rotarians worked to try to keep Ribfest going, while also trying to run a most towelette over their own hands as the service club attempted to divest out of the annual commitment.

Sources tell Radio NL that after Daybreak Rotary’s membership voted in January of 2025 to step away from Ribfest and focus instead on other, less taxing and more profitable ventures, the group immediately put out feelers to see if there was other parties interested in taking up the mantle from Rotary.

Those same sources say the word-of-mouth appeal did draw in a number of interested parties, including one from outside of Kamloops which seemed to be a good fit, as it had experience operating similar, larger scale events, but also had some local connections as well.

After some initial back-and-forth, this unidentified group was ultimately chosen by Daybreak Rotary — with some input from the City of Kamloops as well — to take over Ribfest.

Those same sources tell Radio NL that Rotary and the unnamed group were very close to putting pen-to-paper to see it take control of the licensing, and was also said to be prepared to make a cash settlement to purchase the physical infrastructure Rotary maintained specifically for Ribfest.

However, those same sources tell Radio NL the deal slowly began to sour, as the outside group took several weeks just to  commit to a date for signing the transfer agreement, then began pressing for further concessions in the days leading up to the planned signing.

Seeing some red flags, Daybreak Rotary eventually walked away from the deal, which was expected to see the outside management team take part in the 2025 edition of Ribfest alongside organizers from Rotary to help smoothen the transition and give the group a feel for the event.

Without the new organizer in place, this then left the future of Ribfest for 2026 — and potentially beyond — in a somewhat precarious position.

This is when the Kamloops Sports Council stepped back into the picture, after it too expressed some initial interested in taking control of Ribfest before Daybreak and the City opted to go with the outside group.

“I don’t know so much about the other partner or what transpired there,” said Duncan Olthuis, Executive Director of the Kamloops Sports Council in conversation with Radio NL upon confirming his organization’s takeover of Ribfest.  “We got in some conversations with Rotary in the fall.”

“We were excited to take it on, and our Board’s excited,” added Olthuis.   “We came to the agreement just in December, [confirming] that we are able to take it on and hopefully continue this great event for the city.”

Sports Council with plans to modify Ribfest

While terms of the Ribfest takeover by the Kamloops Sports Council have not been revealed, Olthuis has confirmed the Council does eventually intend to adapt its own ideas and concepts into the three-day event.

But with a much shortened lead-up window for the 2026 edition, the idea of fundamental changes to the layout and organization of the event aren’t in the cards for this August 7th to 9th.

“It will remain a free event,” stated Olthuis when asked whether there are any plans to start charging admission to the adults area of the Park where walking around with alcohol is permitted.  “We would like to continue that.” 

But Olthuis says the Sports Council isn’t ruling out the possibility of a “cover charge” to access the enclosed, licensed area of Riverside Park in the future. 

“We know there’s gonna be a little bit of a lull probably on the sponsorship side of things,” admitted Olthius.  “We hope to kind of bring that [sponsorship levels] back up with with some of the things that we are able to do [in the future].”

“But with this [2026] event, we’re not gonna be changing it drastically,” noted Olthius.  “The first year will be basically [be a] carbon copy of what it [Ribfest] was last year, and then we will kind of re-evaluate where we’re going with it.”

Olthuis says the Sports Council does have intentions to maintain operational control of Ribfest over the long-term, and says they anticipate being able to overcome one of the biggest challenges that Daybreak Rotary dealt with each year, and what may have ultimately led to the group walking away from the event:  Volunteers.

Local sports organizations to earn their keep from Ribfest

Daybreak Rotary estimated it took around 300 volunteer hours per day to run Ribfest over the course of the three-day event.

That does not include the numerous hours the leadership teams would also put in each year in the lead-up to the annual event, which members of past leadership teams through Rotary have told Radio NL began with a post-mortem of the year’s event not long after the tear-down was completed.

The leadership groups would then meet on a semi-regular basis through the fall, winter and spring to prepare for the forthcoming Ribfest — which some of those involved have said was factor in the ultimate decision by Daybreak Rotary to walk away from the event.

With the core volunteer group in Kamloops which rallied around major events like the Canada Games starting to “age out,” City officials have expressed concern about the level of volunteer involvement for continuing major events, such as Ribfest.

But Duncan Olthuis with the Sports Council suggests there should still be some cross-over of volunteers who will lend their time for Ribfest — regardless of who is in charge — and notes the Council has its own core base to pluck from.

“We do have a bunch of LSO’s [Local Sports Organizations] that are helping us out, taking over sections of the event,” noted Olthuis.  “One will take over the Family Fun Zone.  One will take over the beverage garden…”

Olthuis says as a way to encourage the LSO’s involvement, their time and effort through Ribfest will ultimately reap benefits.

“For those ones that do that [sign on for Ribfest] and we can utilize their volunteer base, we’ll be able to give them a bunch of the proceeds back — a larger honorarium back to them,” said Olthius.  “Then the rest of the funds will go back to KidsSport Kamloops, which is in need of funds because of how many kids they have been funding over the years.”

“[KidSport] It’s close to our heart, and its one of the charities which we do run out of the Kamloops Sports Council,” added Olthius.

Ribfest to continue anchoring late-summer revenue blast for downtown

On top of generating some $850,000 in profit for Daybreak Rotary over the 13 years it operated Ribfest, the downtown core of Kamloops has become the real beneficiary of the first weekend after August-long.

The last two installments of Ribfest in Riverside Park drew an estimated 80,000 people into the downtown core over the course of the three day event, which kicks off Friday afternoon and runs until early Sunday evening.

While the “ribbers” and Rotary have been able to draw in tens-of-thousands of dollars in revenue through the years via food and — more recently — alcohol sales, the bigger gains are made by the retailers and restaurants frequented by those who might not have an appetite for a meat plate, or by those who are drawn downtown by the other two large-scale events which also take place that same weekend.

They include the annual “show and shine” for car enthusiasts — Hot Nite in the City.

That event draws in dozens of unique and flashy vehicles from across BC and beyond, as well as those with a passion for vehicles.

The last few years has also seen the Kamloops Sports Council time its annual “Dragon Boat Festival” to coincide with the already-busy weekend in Kamloops downtown.

The Dragon Boat races along the Thompson River bring in teams from the Okanagan, as well as the lower mainland and other parts of the Interior.

This year’s Dragon Boat Festival on the Thompson River  — scheduled for August 8th — is expected to be under new stewardship, as the Sport Council’s Event Coordinator, Lucas Sweet, has been tapped as the new chair of the Ribfest organizing committee.

Those in charge of the impending hand-off say they believe the passing of the baton from Rotary to the Sports Council should ultimately continue benefiting Kamloops as a whole.

“As Rotarians, we are proud of the event we built in Kamloops, and are pleased to see it is still here to raise funds for the community and be a important summer economic driver,” stated Danica Wilkinson, long-time Rotary chair of Ribfest, in the news release announcing the transition.

“The impact of Kamloops Daybreak Rotary’s work through Ribfest is nothing short of extraordinary,” stated Jan Antons, President of the Kamloops Sports Council in the same release.   “We are privileged to carry this torch forward and look forward to honouring this legacy by turning a beloved community staple into lasting opportunities for our local sport organizations.”