Khatsahlano Street Party returns after two-year hiatus

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One wonders what the hippies of the 1960s and early ’70s would make of West Fourth Avenue today.

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They’d be comfortable with, if not in awe of, the pot shops, at home in the yoga studios and, hey, that hard-to-find Doors LP you searched high and low for just for the song Riders on the Storm in 1971, you can probably find it at Zulu Records, in mint condition to boot.

The Khatsahlano Street Festival, after a two-year COVID hiatus, was in full swing on Saturday, headlined by the punk/new wave band Pointed Sticks, dream-pop upstarts Harlequin Gold, indie progressive rockers Hey Ocean! and world-music masters the Boom Booms.

They were backed up by more than 50 other local acts, such as Bad Money, a trio laying down funk at the Balsam Stage, barely 1,000 metres from where the three members started it all at Kits Beach.

“This is awesome, I love it,” Grant McDonagh said as passersby rummage through the hundreds of vinyl discs on sale for 99 cents out front of Zulu Records.

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“There’s a history of the arts and innovation that have happened on Fourth Avenue back in the ’60s and ’70s, and this is wonderful to see.”

McDonagh opened Zulu 41 years ago.

You only have to walk a block west from his record store to see examples of continuing innovation: Lululemon’s founder Chip Wilson says the company would not exist were it not for Kits’ cool vibe and feel; and Arc’teryx, while founded in North Vancouver, took its inspiration from the North Shore mountains you see as you gaze across English Bay from Kits.

“We’re still predominantly independent businesses,” McDonagh said. “And it’s a great walking street.”

West Fourth Avenue was once described as the Haight-Ashbury of Canada, in reference to a district of San Francisco associated with the music, peace and love of the ’60s. The Khatsahlano Street Festival began life as Hippy Days to honour Woodstock and has morphed into this current incarnation.

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Food trucks, beer gardens and local bands headlined by Vancouver’s Pointed Sticks jostled for elbow room as stalls lined both sides of West Fourth from Burrard to Macdonald, a 1.7-kilometre stretch with a usual assortment of booths representing political parties, real estate firms and a seemingly endless number of fitness establishments.

The latter, ranging from gyms and karate classes to lap- and pole-dance lessons to increase flexibility, might have had our time-travelling hippies wide-eyed and wondering what ever happened to “Turn on, tune in, and drop out.”

Bishop’s, a Kits fixture serving fine West Coast food for three decades, shuttered for good in January, but icons such as Sophie’s Cosmic Cafe, which first opened in 1988, still take lining up for a table, while nearby Las Margaritas has been providing popular California- and Baja-inspired comfort food for almost as long.

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At a booth called Kids Rock, 10-year-olds Scarlett and Everett and eight-year-old Crawford were selling rocks they’ve painted, part of the proceeds going to help Ukrainian families relocate in Vancouver.

“I am so impressed with the community,” Janice McLean, who was chaperoning the girls, said. “People have been amazing.”

Next to where Harrison Lee, a three-time Canadian freestyle yo-yo champ, was displaying what amazing things one can do with a long piece of string and a grooved disc, Joanne Olgivie was selling her rainbow-coloured sun hats and tye-died shirts.

Owner and creative spark behind Olgivie Designs, the artist has spent her life in Kits and has fond memories of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s at the height of the counter-culture.

“My brothers had rock bands,” she said, holding up one of the shirts her that highlights all the iconic places in the area, from Naam, Black Swan Records, Kits Pool and Kings Head, to the Pine Street Clinic, Bennie’s Bagels and the Vineyard.

“All the old places,” she Olgivie said. “It’s sad how much has changed.”

She runs a Facebook page called Kitsilano Then and Now, and isn’t sure how much longer she can afford to live in the neighbourhood.

“I’ll probably have to move, too.”

gordmcintyre@postmedia.com

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