For the first time, the South Asian music festival Desifest will shut Water Street in Gastown for a 10-hour outdoor concert. Organizer Rina Gill estimates that at least 3,000 people will descend on the area on May 3 from throughout the Lower Mainland. Like the annual Tour de Gastown, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Concours d’Elegance, and the Motorcycle Show n’ Shine, Desifest is an event that brings a sense of liveliness—and noise and crowds and a closed street—to the busy residential neighbourhood.

“We could have held it in Surrey,” Gill told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview, “but we wanted to bridge the gap, to introduce South Asian culture to the mainstream. That’s the mandate of Desifest: to share.”

Despite Gill’s compelling reason for adding yet another gathering to the downtown core, city staff worry that Vancouver’s tolerance for events and festivals is dwindling. According to a report presented to council on April 3, the number of city-approved festivals, races, parades, neighbourhood celebrations, and protests has more than doubled since 2000. A cap on the number of events approved for a single neighbourhood is something staff are looking into at the direction of council, according to the manager of the city’s film and special-events office.

“We’re at that fine point of people going, ‘Enough’s enough,’ ” Muriel Honey told the Straight. “I can just see the neighbourhood tolerances changing.…We maybe have to start setting limits.”

April is the start of the city’s events season, Honey said, which lasts through October. This year, along with the 546 events held in 2006 (2007 numbers are incomplete, due to the civic strike), the city approved seven new, large-scale events, most in the northwest area of the city. They are Desifest (Gastown); the Westside Cycling Classic (Point Grey); the 2008 BG Triathlon World Championships (West End); an expanded Car Free Day (Kits Point and Cambie, Denman, and Main streets); an extended Pride Parade (West End); the Nike Human Race (False Creek); and a Red Bull Soapbox Derby for adults (location TBA).

“We’ve talked [to race organizers] about running out to the PNE and ending their events at the PNE,” Honey said. “That’s a great spot. But they say, ‘Oh, no, we want to run around False Creek. We want to run over the Burrard Bridge and Cambie Bridge.’ So that’s why council wants to say, ‘If you want to do a new event, you gotta do it in South Vancouver or East Vancouver. Or you have to do it outside of downtown.’ ”

It’s not that residents are complainers, Honey said. It’s that the city’s core is not built for big gatherings. The Vancouver Art Gallery has become the default location for events, she said, and it’s not always appropriate as a hotel, a church, and a new ultra-swank apartment building stand nearby. For comparison’s sake, she said, in Seattle the 100,000-plus-attendees events are held on the grounds of the 1962 World’s Fair, which is a car-free plaza away from residential neighbourhoods. Vancouver has no equivalent, she said.

Indeed, Seattle Centre is an asset in a city that loves its festivals, according to Michael Killoran, Seattle’s director of arts and cultural affairs.

“For 35 years, it’s been the site of the festivals,” Killoran told the Straight, noting the area has built-in event facilities such as theatres, a science centre, and multipurpose buildings. He also noted that Seattle’s smaller festivals are more diffuse than Vancouver’s; neighbourhoods invite them in as a way to build character and revitalize.

“I’m not aware of any mounting resentment [about the number of events],” he said. “This office isn’t aware of complaints. I know there’s complaints sometimes about noise or traffic, but there’s such support for those activities.…I’m not aware of any efforts to stem the tide.”

At the start of the April 3 Vancouver city council meeting, Coun. Raymond Louie said he’s heard complaints. But speaking after the meeting, he noted that public events are becoming more important as the city’s private residences have become smaller, lacking back yards and living rooms.

“People need to be able to enjoy themselves out in the public realm because our private spaces are obviously shrinking due to economics,” he said. “I hope that people realize that they [events] are for the greater good, and these things are a positive for our city, to have people interact on our streets and to give people a fun alternative to staying inside.”

Louie, speaking as a mayoral candidate, said Vancouver should have a large events-designated plaza, but also that neighbourhoods in the southeast part of the city should have festivals as well. Despite the complaints, he sees more festivals, especially outside of downtown, as being important to the evolution of a better city.