Town's Peaceful Image Crumbles In Sand-Castle Riot -- Youthful B.C. Crowd Goes On Rampage

PARKSVILLE, British Columbia - A weekend riot by 600 to 1,000 young people in this holiday beach town may cost the Vancouver Island community its annual sand castle contest, the event president said yesterday.

Al Kaario said community leaders will discuss the Saturday-night riot with police, and they could decide to end the event, which brings up to 40,000 visitors to this town of 10,000.

"We'll have to have a debriefing to see if the event will be held next year," Kaario said as competitors built their sand castles on the white-sand beach.

Some rowdiness is always expected at a large summer event, but the disruption by hundreds of mostly young people who broke into and looted some 20 local businesses was the worst in the event's 16-year history, Kaario said.

More than 100 people were arrested as police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

The majority were out-of-towners who don't participate in event functions, Kaario said.

The broken glass strewn throughout downtown and a beach-side park was cleaned up before most people got up on yesterday morning, he added.

"You wouldn't know anything happened. Everything is cleaned up and the beach is packed," he said.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police from the nearby communities of Nanaimo, Courtenay and Port Alberni helped local police calm the disturbance.

An operator of the beach-front Island Hall Beach Resort said all festival events featuring alcohol, such as the Saturday-night dance and the beer gardens, should be canceled, and that it should just be a family affair.

"They should just have the event on Sunday (castle building) and get rid of the alcohol events," said the woman, who wouldn't give her name.

Kaario doesn't think those activities add to the problem, which he said is caused by party-going out-of-towners.

"The RCMP know the local trouble makers. This was caused by little gangs of punks from out of town," he said.

McDonald and Kaario hope the incident won't give Parksville a black eye, since summer tourism is its No. 1 industry.