The Burns Lake Mountain Bike Association cancelled their annual Big Pig Mountain Bike Festival that was supposed to take place last Friday to Sunday.
In an email sent to the Lakes District News, the reason given for the cancelling of the event was due to the wildfires near the community, specifically the forest fire near China Nose Mountain, along with all the related evacuation orders and alerts, as well as the closure of Hwy. 16 between Decker Lake and Topley.
“We thought having a festival when people were worried about their homes, families and livelihoods was pretty callous,” Guy-Epkens-Shaffer, President of the Burns Lake Mountain Bike Association said, “Those factors along with the fire risk of having that many people up on Boer Mountain and doing physical activity with the smoke advisory were our main factors in cancelling.”
The mountain bike associations plan is to reschedule the event for later in September, and at this time a tentative date for the last weekend in September is what is being looked at.
Epkens-Shaffer says that final weekend in September is probably the latest the event could be rescheduled before being cancelled for good, but it was all weather dependant.
If the mountain bike association is unable to reschedule the mountain bike festival then the prizes and money that were to be awarded to riders will be put towards next year's event if sponsors agree.
"We hope everyone in the community remains safe," mountain bike association representatives said.