Victoria Classic Boat Festival

Date: 4 September 2026 – 6 September 2026

Location: Victoria Inner Harbour, Victoria BC, Canada

Organizer: Maritime Museum of British Columbia

Every Labour Day weekend, Victoria's Inner Harbour fills with wooden hulls, brightwork and old engines for the Victoria Classic Boat Festival, run by the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. The 2026 festival runs 4 to 6 September. Up to 100 classic sail and power boats from around the Pacific Northwest tie up along the docks, and the public can wander the floats for a suggested five-dollar donation that supports the museum's collections and programs. There is a sail race in the harbour approaches, awards for the boats themselves, and family programming ashore. The festival has run for more than four decades, and the museum has operated it since 2017, folding marine exhibits in alongside the boats. The setting does a lot of the work here: the Inner Harbour puts the fleet directly beneath the Empress Hotel and the provincial legislature, so the crowds come to the boats rather than the other way around.

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