Imagine if Vancouver was car-free: Everyone biking where ever they need to go, pedestrians walking down the middle of Main Street, roving bands of street performers….OK, maybe the roving bands wouldn’t be typical of that car-free utopia, but they are certainly typical of the Car-Free Festivals happening Sunday, June 14.

The Car-Free Festival started in 2005 on Commercial Drive as a grass-roots community festival to support the idea of a car-free city. That first festival was such a monumental success—subsequent years have seen upwards of 35,000 revelers—that the festivals spread around the city.

Now there are annual festivals on Main Street, Denman Street (in the West End), and Commercial Drive. These busy streets are blocked off to cars for the day and play host to street festivals that include tons of food, live music, dance, spoken-word tents, arts and crafts, kids’ activities, and the aforementioned roving performers (which, in Vancouver, always include at least one guy on stilts).

Car-Free Festivals, Sunday, June 14

• Commercial Drive Car-Free Festival: 12pm – 6pm, on Commercial Drive between Venables and 1st Avenue
• Main Street Car-Free Festival: 12pm – 8pm, on Main Street between 12th Avenue and 25th Avenue
• West End Car-Free Festival: 12pm – 6pm, on Denman Street between Davie and Robson

Kitsilano is also hosting 20-plus block parties: little mini-Car-Free Festivals throughout the neighbourhood. For more details on Kits’ block parties, see the Car-Free Vancouver site.