The KCBIA wants locals and tourists to stop by downtown Kamloops.

(BRENDAN KERGIN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - The downtown business association is aiming to liven Kamloops’s core for the end of summer.

A new two week long event is planned for the city centre, with the goal of getting more people into downtown for weeknight evenings. With Alive at Five, the Kamloops Central Business Improvement Area is hoping to get more tourists and locals shopping between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m., according to the organization’s general manager Gay Pooler says.

“We’re going to have the local merchants, eateries and retailers open until 9,” she says. “There already are a certain number of places that are open already.”

The organization will also be hosting live music on Victoria Street.

Tourism Kamloops is playing a supportive role in the project as well, Pooler says, and will be encouraging tourists in hotels outside of Kamloops’s centre to head downtown. Both organizations are part of Focus Kamloops along with the city and other stakeholders focusing on getting more people into the core, especially as Kamloops experiences a big tourism year.

“The Rocky Mountaineer has been asking for something like this,” she says. “That’s something they’ve gotten as feedback from their guests.”

This year the extended hours will go for two weeks at the end of summer. Depending on how it goes, a longer period could be considered next year.

“This is more a pilot,” Pooler says. “A test period to see how it goes over an try and learn some things.”

City council is also supporting the project, and there will be free parking at in city parking areas after 5 p.m. for the event.

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