File photo (Image credit: CFJC Today).

By Victor Kaisar

They're Not Ribbing Us

Ribfest 2025 to be the last: Kamloops Daybreak Rotary

Jan 24, 2025 | 8:43 AM

KAMLOOPS — This summer will be the last time avid ribbers will be able to snarf down meat, coleslaw and mac and cheese, all while listening to tunes in Riverside Park.

The Kamloops Daybreak Rotary Clubs says this summer’s edition of Ribfest, set for Aug. 8 to 10, 2025, will be the last one it hosts.

“We’ve done Ribfest for 12 amazing years and this one being lucky number 13, our club voted to move on to something new and something exciting,” Danica Wilkinson, with Daybreak Rotary said.

“Why people voted yes or no, they had their own reason but its matter of as a club we’ve spoken, and we want to do something new.”

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Increasing costs and the significant amount of planning work that goes into organizing the event are believed to be some of the reasons why Rotarians voted to end Ribfest.

The club did not say what it hopes to sink its teeth into as a future project, though Wilkinson says they’re optimistic that this year’s Ribfest will be the “greatest” one yet.

“We’re really excited for that for the community to come out one last time,” Wilkinson said. “We want to take all those great aspects and put it into something new.”

“Twelve years ago we sat around a table and came up with Ribfest, so it’s kind of exciting to think of what we could do with all that club energy and vibes and expertise and carry on.”

Since its inception in 2012, Wilkinson says Kamloops Ribfest has raised more than $850,000 for a number of different Kamloops and area charities. Organizers say last year’s event drew in around 80,000 people into Riverside Park, and helped raise more than $60,000 for charity, while injecting some $5 million into the local economy.

“Announcements like this are never easy, especially concerning a community event so beloved by so many people, but it’s time,” Terry-Lynn Stone, chair of the Daybreak Rotary Ribfest Management Committee, said, in a statement.

“It’s bittersweet to host our thirteenth and final Ribfest this year, but we as a club look with anticipation for other opportunities to make a difference in the community.”

– With files from Aaron Schulze and Dylana Kneeshaw