COMMUNITY EVENTS | 🌚 Oak Bay Night Market on Wednesday, July 10 from 4-8pm. Markets will continue on every second Wednesday this summer where Oak Bay Village transforms into a European-style street market with fresh and local produce, food and artisanal goods. More info here. | 🎨 Arts Alive opening celebration will be held Thursday, July 11 from 5-7:30pm. The event will start at McNeill Bay and finish at Causton’s Green on Hampshire Road. Follow along by bus, bike, skates or scooters as local singers serenade each of the 2024 sculptures. | 🎶 Summer Concerts in the Park are set to begin Saturday, June 29 at 2pm at Willows Park in the grassy area. Concerts will highlight local musicians with emerging artists as opening acts. Presented by Oak Bay Parks, Recreation and Culture. | 🧘🏻♀️ Summer Yoga in Abkhazi Garden will take place on Wednesdays from 6:30-7:30pm for $15 per class. Email Kaitlyn at omoutsideyoga@gmail.com to reserve your spot! |
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| | COMMUNITY NEWS | ☀ Oak Bay warns of heat risks as temperatures rise this weekend. The district warned residents about precautions residents should take amid heat-related risks, as temperatures could soar up to 29 over the coming days. [District of Oak Bay] | 📚 Oak Bay library branch closed temporarily this week after maggots were found in the return area. The branch is dealing with the infestation and will update the public with any updates. A temporary return area is located in front of the Monterey Centre. [CHEK] | 🏊♀️ UVic closing McKinnon pool after 50 years. The pool will close September 15 at the latest, due to high maintenance costs and an estimated $1.5 million needed to upgrade the facility. Some say this is a missed opportunity to maintain public access. [Vibrant Victoria] | 🧵 Tailor shop closes after more than 50 years in Oak Bay. Owner Sharon Chan told Saanich News that over the years, customers in the community have “become like family to me” and have been there through good times and bad. Chan will close Henry’s Tailors as she retires after more than 30 years at the shop. [Saanich News] | 📔 Local author releases mystery novel set in historic Oak Bay. Jean Paetkau’s latest novel The Sinking of Souls details the tragic sinking of the Clallam steamship in 1904 off the Trial Islands, and features locations like Ross Bay Cemetery & Craigdarroch Castle. [Oak Bay Local] Capital Daily profiled the author when she released her previous novel, a murder mystery. | 😨 Residents report ‘bang and run’ incidents in South Oak Bay. Residents contacted the non-emergency Oak Bay Police line after recording what appeared to be several masked men banging on their doors and running away. While some chalked it up to innocent youthful pranks, others said they were concerned it could result in someone getting hurt. Have you been banged? [Oak Bay Local] | 🚗 24th Annual Oak Bay Collector Car Festival is a memorial to longtime organizer Ken Agate and is still seeking entries. The festival is coming up on Sunday, July 21, and is seeking volunteers and participants after Agate passed away. Registrations can be made for $25 per preregistered car, or $30 at the gates. [Oak Bay Collector Car Show] | Do you plan to attend local car shows? | | | P.S. Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. |
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| | PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT | To join the conversation, become a member of the Oak Bay Local Facebook Group | The future of car shows | Oak Bay locals have been remembering Ken Agate, the longtime organizer of the Oak Bay Collector Car festival this week. Agate started the Oak Bay Collector Car Festival in 1999 and was also the proprietor of the Blethering Place restaurant. Agate was recognized for his many contributions and involvement in the community by the District of Oak Bay, and he earned the municipality’s first Oak Leaf Award in 2014. He died of cancer on Sept. 11, 2023 at the age of 79. | The future of the collector car festival is now in question, after current organizers struggled to draw enough participants this year. Some suggested an alternative to such events may be a better fit for the community moving forward, and could be an opportunity to rethink the festival for the future, which could include a vintage bicycle show or something that can be seen as less of a promotion of car culture and in favour of more active living. What do you think? Should car shows be a thing of the past or should they go on? | |
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| | | Coffee shop patio prompts design discussion | An Oak Bay community member sparked a discussion about patio design requirements on Oak Bay Avenue after local coffee shop Hide and Seek sent out a notice that their existing horse corall-style outdoor patio was up for discussion at an upcoming council meeting on Monday, July 8. | Some suggested that the style of the patio doesn’t achieve the classic aesthetic that visitors have come to expect in Oak Bay. Others said that if the current design works, and allows visitors to enjoy their coffee outside, why force a local business to incur a loss in order to accommodate an outdated look that could use a refresh? If you would like the patio to stay, the owners would appreciate a few letters of support to share at the upcoming council meeting at contact@hideandseekcoffee.ca. | | |
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| IN OTHER NEWS |  | Image credit: Rusty W Cleveland |
| Remembering Paul Horn | Oak Bay local Rusty Cleveland shared a photo this week of internationally renowned flutist Paul Horn. In addition to playing alongside Frank Sinatra and the Beatles, he is remembered by locals in Oak Bay for different reasons. In the photo above he is shown playing for one of the orcas at Sealand of the Pacific in Oak Bay, which he used to do often, with the orcas chiming in with the sound. It was a chapter in Oak Bay’s history that others shared memories of as well, with one commenter recalling the unique home of Paul Horn, with handmade tiles and a meditation room, as they attended flute lessons for a brief period. Horn died in Vancouver in 2014 at the age of 84. Do you have memories to share? | |
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| | | PHOTO OF THE WEEK |  | Photo credit: Mary McArthur |
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