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Do. Not. Overprogram.

This is the rule that the whole event works around.

Visitors come because they want to experience the place — the place itself, as it actually is on a regular Saturday in spring or summer or autumn.

The temptation to add structure will be enormous.

• Local businesses will want to host welcome events.
• Politicians will want to give speeches.
• Tourism bodies will want to set up itineraries.
• The local symphony will want to schedule a concert.
• Volunteers will suggest a craft fair, a market, a parade.

Most of these things are good ideas, great even.

And your answer should be “Nice! I hope it works great for you!”

You can encourage local events, but you do not need to coordinate them.

When the food truck people said they wanted to be a part of the Infusion, we told them we would be excited for that, and they should go about it they way they would regardless of if the Infusion was happening or not: by contacting City Hall, getting a permit, etc.

The reason why is simple.

Every event you add to the schedule is an event your visitors feel obligated to attend. Obligation is the opposite of welcome. A visitor who feels they should be at the welcome reception at 6 p.m. is a visitor who is not eating dinner at a local restaurant they discovered on their own. A visitor at a 10 a.m. official tour is not wandering into the bookshop they would have loved.

Lessons learned, Nanaimo 2026: We had over 600 RSVPs and an estimated 1,000 people in the park on Saturday. One of the pieces of feedback we heard most was: "I loved that I could just explore."

The Infusion model is: Get your visitors there, share a moment (The ‘Family Photo’ ), and otherwise, leave them to explore.

The other reason.

There’s another reason too — you will be busy enough. You don’t need the added burden of helping 100 community groups with their own parallel events. See also: Avoid Complexity