The 25^th Anniversary of the Pacific Rim Whale Festival kicks off this weekend!  If you live on Vancouver Island and haven’t made plans to join us March 19-26^th, spring break, we hope that you do.  Take the short drive out west and experience celebrations, activities, events, entertainment and cuisine you’ll always remember.  Here is a taste of what we have in store for you:

Witness the “Parade of Whales and Wonders” starting Saturday morning at 10am in Tofino.  Come watch the floats, costumes, cool vehicles and happy people has they march through town!  This might be the only time you’ll see a gray whale dancing down the street!  Meet Knuckles the Gray Whale, he is part wonder....and all whale.

Then you’ll want to head south to Ucluelet for the highly anticipated SEASON OPENING of the Ucluelet Aquarium!!  It’s open from 12-5 and the first opportunity of the year to interact with seastars, sideways sand dollars, bright sea anemones, cool crabs, incredible fish, and their fun and interpretive staff that make this little aquarium an amazing experience! 

The best part of about this gem of an aquarium is their focus on education on local marine life and conservational awareness.  All the little critters in the Ucluelet Aquarium are collected each spring from local waters and returned back to the ocean at the end of the season! 

Learn from guest interpreters, special demonstrations and activities for ages 1 to 101!  Bring your curiosity and questions.  There is no admission for this day.

These are just TWO of the events listed for this Saturday, alone.  You’re visit to the Pacific Rim Whale Festival will be so much fun you’ll just have to stay the next 9 days!  Fill up on coastal celebrations – we hope to see you soon.

For updates, stories, photo and video on each Pacific Rim Whale Festival event follow the Facebook Page or check out this blog as postings will be made daily!

There are so many wonderful new events and an amazing range of speakers and experts!

On Saturday, March 26^th we are combining experts, local west coasters and colourful characters to discuss "25 years of Sea Change". This panel discussion will touch on many of the issues concerning area residents, talk about success stories in conservation and allow attendees to ask questions and share their thoughts.

Want to take beautiful pictures? There will be a Nature Walk with a professional photographer helping you get the most out of your camera.

Consider yourself a foodie? Chowder Chowdown, Sweet Indulgence and the Wine Makers Dinner are just the thing! 

The Calendar of Events is online now with updates daily as we confirm and plan events.

 And lets not forget our favourite anchor events! The Wickaninnish Gala, Chowder Chowdown, Barnacle Blues, Sweet Indulgence and Martini Migration are all back with a bang! After an amazingly successful first year, the Winter Wave Photo Showdown is also back, put on by the Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce this event challenges local photographers to capture all the beauty and power of nature and the attendees get to reap the results and enjoy a cocktail evening at Black Rock Oceanfront Resort.

 But most importantly, the Pacific Rim Whale Festival can’t run without its volunteers.  Volunteer applications are available on the festival website or interested volunteers can also sign up at the festival's new Ucluelet office. Like whales without water – we couldn’t survive without our volunteers!

 The new permanent office space is located in Ucluelet at 250 Main Street, behind the CIBC and across from Ukee Dogs. We are sharing this space with local contractor Jason Niles. Watch for the fascinating things to come from this space. During the festival the "Sensory Experience", formally known as the Media Lounge, will be showing at this new location. The office hours are Monday - Friday, 10am - 6pm. Feel free to stop by to discuss the events and sponsorship opportunities, sign up to be a volunteer or just say hi!

What an incredibly quirky & truly coastal way to spend the afternoon...competing for the best seafood chowder recipe. The line-up of entrants was varied and wonderful, and we're getting a number of calls and email from folks wondering about the results....and here they are - drumroll please:

Judge’s Choice 

1. Wildside Grill (Tofino)
2. A tight tie between Ukee Dogs (Ucluelet) and Long Beach Lodge Resort (Tofino)
3. Weigh West Marine Resort (Tofino)

People’s Choice 

1. Weigh West Marine Resort (Tofino)
2. Wildside Grill (Tofino)
3. Offshore (Ucluelet)

Congratulations to the winners - you've earned yourself some bragging rights, and we love you & your chowders!

The Seaplane Base Rec Hall has never looked so fun, and the maritime tunes with Newfoundland Darlin' Robert Cluett had me kicking up my heels. It was a wonderful success and we're thankful to everyone who came out to support the event and to the Ucluelet Recreation Commission for keeping the tradition alive. It gets better every year!

A boatload of thanks to all of the participating restaurants for slaving over your recipes and prepping the bucketloads of chowder that fed a very happy (and record-breaking!) crowd of folks at today's event. It was a certified whale of a time!

Yes, I said whale of a time.

Our answer to this question is usually ‘EVERYTHING!’. Quite often during the festival we need button greeters, ticket takers, event calendar givers, poster sellers and/or information givers at the entrance to events. These are out front lines at presentations & talks, movies, storytelling and workshops. Usually there are 2-4 volunteers at each event.

The largest amount of volunteer energy is needed for decorating & set-up of the Tofino Community Hall on Tuesday, March 9th (12pm – 12am) and Wednesday, March 10th (12pm - 7pm) for 2 large events held there. Any length of time is massively appreciated!

We have 2 committees that require a bit more dedication: Merchandise and Signage. Ideally, 8-10 volunteers will team up to move the merchandise between a few key events throughout the week while also attending for the duration in order to pack up & move the merchandise to the next location. Sandwich boards need to be outside an event about an hour before it starts. Boards also need to have to the correct sign on them (i.e., culinary event, children’s event, fundraiser, etc.). Each town has about 4 boards and a schedule of who is picking up which and placing at what event must be created and executed by a team of 5-6 volunteers.

A security team of 6-8 volunteers will be needed at Martini Migration to rotate positions and shifts throughout the night. Upwards of 15 others will be needed throughout the night for working the door, kitchen, bussing tables, handing out glasses, collecting votes and more and more. Maritime Kids Days will also need 15-20 volunteers for the set-up of tables, operation of stations as well as tear down.

An infinity amount of volunteers are needed for the parade, beach clean-up, aerial art, Tug-o-Whale & Whale Dip. That’s a lot. So sign up and bring a friend! Then tell your friend to bring their other friend!

A longer description of volunteer opportunities can be found in the volunteer section of this site. If you would like to volunteer, check out our handy Volunteer Sign-up form.

We hear it every year. We have no idea who starts this terrible rumour but as the Volunteer Coordinator for 3 years, I can assure you that I have never had “enough volunteers” for the Pacific Rim Whale Festival. I’m no expert, but according to my research, this statement is an oxymoron and I hope we can stop it from spreading any further. The real truth is that we actually need more volunteers. Heck, I could use double the amount that I have right now! We definitely believe ‘the more, the merrier’!

For example, we need A LOT of help setting up the Tofino Community Hall for Martini Migration and Kids Days. Then we need to tear it all down. Not to mention the 15-20 volunteers we need at the events themselves! We need teams of dedicated volunteers in each town who can be responsible for moving, counting and selling the merchandise also moving our sandwich boards from one event to the next.

We also need bodies to move it, build it, cut it out, make it, serve it, sell it, help someone, laugh, learn, smile (a lot), play it, have fun, introduce it, meet new people, set it up, tear it down, participate, carry it, dance, sing, watch, eat and MORE!

If someone has any amount of time to volunteer with the festival, we would love to have you be part of our team. We would love to have your friends be on our team as well! If you would like to sign up, use our handy Volunteer Sign-up form.