Funtastic Slow-Pitch Tournament

The Canada Day long weekend (July 1) is the best time to be in Vernon, I believe. Funtastic started out as a slow pitch softball tournament about 20 years ago, but it has gotten so big and popular that it now includes beach volleyball, sailing, lawn bowling, and soccer. The softball part alone has over 300 teams participating! However, it’s what happens at night that is the fun part. On every night of the tournament, there is live music in the beer gardens. There is always a mixture of music, one which there is usually 2-3 old, classic rock Canadian bands, and then tribute bands, also. In the past, we’ve seen bands such as Chilliwack, Prism, Streetheart, April Wine, Trooper, Honeymoon Suite, Harlequin, Tal Bachman, and The Northern Pikes, among others. There has also been Tragically Hip tribute bands, AC/DC tribute bands, Queen tribute bands, The Beatles tribute bands, Elton John tribute acts, Rod Stewart tribute acts, and Neil Diamond tribute acts. It is an absolute blast. The whole weekend we drink and dance and meet people and have fun. Everybody loves it and loves each other. It’s so popular that if you were to go into the city, it would be a ghost town, as everybody is at the Funtastic beer gardens. I get a huge smile on my face just thinking about it.