VANCOUVER -- On May 1, 10,000 people came out to an International Workers Day celebration at Grandview Park that shut down several blocks of Commercial Drive.

The organizers didn’t have a permit. They just put up a Facebook site and threw posters up on the Drive announcing the event, then shut down the street.

The same group is planning another event at Grandview Park on Aug. 21, the Commercial Drive Street Party Part 2. More than 4,200 people have already indicated they will attend on the event’s Facebook site, and another 3,500 people have been invited.

Organizers don’t plan to get a permit for this event, either.

“Our goal is not only to host a decentralized, autonomous celebration of life, community, and self-determination that is free and accessible to the public, but to challenge the city of Vancouver’s insistence on charging money for permits to use public space and the VPD’s threat of going after organizers of unsanctioned events,” said an organizer in an email.

This is alarming to the Commercial Drive Business Society, which represents 700 businesses and property owners along the Drive.

“It’s just too large not to have proper safety and security measures in place in advance of the event,” said Nick Pogor of the Commercial Drive Business Society.

“We think there needs to be contact between the organizing group and the city, as well as the police level, so that we can make sure that it’s a safe and secure event, not only for the group or people wanting to attend, but for the residents and businesses in the area.”

There are two widely different views of the May 1st street party, which shut down Commercial between William and First Avenue.

The organizers think the nighttime event was a complete success.

“We heard from many people that they had never experienced such a joyful, communal atmosphere in all of their time spent in Vancouver, a city notorious for the isolation experienced by its residents,” says a statement on the Commercial Drive Street Party Facebook site.

“The thousands of people in attendance at the first Commercial Drive Street Party proved that events like this are wanted by a huge amount of Vancouver residents. It is apparent that there is a desire to foster a sense of community in the public spaces of this city.”

Pogor said that while the event was largely peaceful, it did go on until the wee small hours of the morning, and there were some problems.

“At the last event in May there were three arrests and one stabbing,” said Pogor. “We’ve had concerned residents contacting us, letting us know this is not something that they would like to see in their neighbourhood.

“There was no particular vandalism that I can think of, other than lots of garbage, (but Grandview) Park was a mess, (and) a lot of people were drinking in public.”

Sgt. Randy Fincham of the Vancouver police said there was a “fairly large contingent of an anarchist group” that were hostile to the police monitoring the party.

“It went from a street event or a street celebration to an anti-police rally that did become quite violent in the end,” Fincham said. “As the evening progressed we saw a stabbing, a fairly violent stabbing. We had a number of threats against our members, as well as problems with the local community — property damage, garbage that was left lying around.”

Fincham said the police have reached out to the organizers of the Aug. 21 event “through Facebook, phone calls, emails and other means,” but have received no response.

Police clashed with pro-marijuana protesters July 1 at a Cannabis Day rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery, an event that also didn’t have a permit. Four people were arrested.

Asked if the police would shut down the event if organizers didn’t get a permit, Fincham said “that remains to be seen.”

“It’s hard to say we’ll shut something down when it’s going to be in a public setting like that,” he said.

“We certainly are planning on having a police presence at the event. The size of that police presence will depend on the size of the crowd that we expect.”

The organization behind the event is called Vancouver Mayday, which bills itself as an “anti-capitalist celebration of resistance and action.” The poster for the May 1 event features a raccoon carrying a black flag with a single star, symbols that may represent communism (the star) or anarchism (the black flag). The organizers have so far maintained their anonymity — the email to the Sun was not signed.

“We’d love to communicate with them, so we could help them get more organized,” said Pogor. “So we can help them ensure everything is safe and secure, and there aren’t any people out there causing issues.”

The anonymous organizer doesn’t think there will be any issues.

“We are doing our best to provide a joyous yet safe atmosphere for everyone attending the Commercial Drive Street Party,” they said.

“We will have medics, harm reduction specialists, lawyers, as well as a safe space area and trash cleanup crew in place to ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible.”

Commercial Drive is the site of several big community celebrations each year, including Car Free Day and Italian Day. It also has a long history of protest marches.

jmackie@vancouversun.com

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