Victoria celebrates Victoria Day with annual parade

Victoria's annual Victoria Day parade has unfolded with sunshine and clear skies, but not all its regular participants were there.

The annual parade — now in its 119th year — has over 3,000 participants and the highlight is a competition between a number of high school marching bands and drill teams from along the West Coast.

Many of the parade entrants include high school bands from Washington and Oregon, but this year the Kentlake High School band from Washington cancelled its appearance.

School officials were worried some of their students may not be able to re-enter the United States due to the U.S. administration's increased travel restrictions.

"It was unfortunate. There are normally 120 kids from Kent Lake who come up every year. They've been coming for 18 years," explained Kelly Kurta, the general manager for the Greater Victoria Festival Society.

Kurta said one mom, however, was able to bring up 12 kids from the school's jazz band on her own expense.

"They ended up coming up and played a concert on Saturday down in the Inner Harbour. We actually have them on a couple of floats today and they're going to be in the parade," she said.

Several other U.S. high school marching bands did make the trip North to participate in the two-hour parade which started at 9 a.m. PT with festivities running at Victoria's Celebration Square — located in Centennial Square, behind Victoria's City Hall — until 2 p.m.

"The whole energy that comes with the parade and the marching bands ... is just a great community feeling. It's something that's such a tradition in Victoria," Kurta said.

With files from On the Island