From the Sidney Street Market to the Victoria Day Parade: Risk Management and Funding with Kelly Kurta
When most of us think about festivals and parades, we picture crowds, music, food trucks, and families lining the streets. What we do not usually see are the binders of permits, the late‑night safety plans, the traffic maps, and the long email chains with city departments. In a recent episode of the True North Compliance Podcast, I sat down with event professional Kelly Kurta to pull back the curtain on what it really takes to keep community festivals both fun and compliant.
Kelly wears two major hats. She is the Executive Director of the Greater Victoria Festival Society, which produces the Victoria Day Parade, the Santa Claus Parade, Wicked Victoria, the St. Patrick's Festival, and more. She is also co‑owner of Kaemac Services Inc., the team behind the Sidney Street Market, Dockside Nights at Port Sidney Marina, and the Candy Cane Lane Christmas craft show. Together, these roles put her right at the intersection of community building, safety, and regulation.
During our conversation, Kelly walked me through the “invisible” side of events. Before a single float moves or a single tent goes up, there are traffic management plans, emergency access routes, security and crowd management plans, insurance reviews, food safety requirements, and accessibility planning. She explained how health rules, fire protection standards, and detailed documentation have all tightened in recent years, especially since COVID. None of this is optional; it is the baseline for running a responsible event.
We also talked about the rising costs that come with doing things properly. Insurance premiums have multiplied. Police presence, professional security teams, and trained traffic control personnel are now essential parts of many events. On top of that, route changes and late decisions from authorities can add tens of thousands of dollars in unplanned costs, along with reprinting notices and redoing communications to hotels, ferry companies, care homes, and local businesses.
What struck me most is how much economic value these “free” events actually generate. Kelly shared that Victoria Day alone has an impact in the millions of dollars, supports thousands of jobs directly and indirectly, and contributes significant tax revenue. Yet funding models do not always see parades and community festivals as economic drivers, and nonprofits are often expected to carry the rising compliance and safety costs on already tight budgets.
Despite all that, Kelly’s passion for community shone through. She talked with pride about volunteers getting disability‑inclusion training, about American marching bands viewing Victoria as a rite of passage, and about kids and grandparents lining the streets year after year. For her, sustainability means keeping events safe without pricing out local makers, families, and community groups.
If you are interested in how compliance, safety, and regulation play out in the real world of community events, you will want to hear this conversation. This episode of the True North Compliance Podcast can be found on most podcast apps. Just search for the show and look for the episode with Kelly Kurta. Or listen here:
