Tuesday, February 23, 2016

WESTIVA 2016

Plans are well under way for this year's edition of Westiva. This will be the 8th time we've hosted the event at the picturesque Wedge Pond Day Use Area in Alberta's beautiful Kananaskis Country.

Westiva is very casual, informal event originally geared towards owners, fans and fanatics of both the Ford Festiva or Ford Aspire with invitations extended to owners of other econoboxes from the late eighties and early nineties such as the Dodge Colt, Chevrolet Sprint, Geo Metro, Suzuki Swift and Nissan Micra.

The "official" start time is around 10:00am. At about 1:00pm we’ll cruise up to the Boulton Creek Trading Post in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park for ice cream, about a 30km drive. From there we'll continue to Upper Kananaskis Lake.



2010 attendees (This shot was taken before the tenth car arrived)

When Westiva was first held in 2008 there were four attendees. Two from Calgary, one from the lower mainland of British Columbia and the fourth driving up from Worland WY. Our best year attendance-wise was 2010 when we had 10 Festivas show up with the furthest being from Ontario. 

In keeping with our expanded area of interest we had the owner of a Suburau Vivio RXR come to the 2012 edition. There was no event in 2013 due to significant flooding in southern Alberta

The 2014 event saw a couple of Suzuki Swifts in attendance, one from Calgary and the other from Spruce Grove AB. We also had owners bringing the cars from as far away as Pasco WA and St. Albert SK.




Westiva 2014 attendees.
Westiva 2015 attendees

Looking forward to some long distance attendees this year! Festiva owners in Georgia, Utah and Montana have expressed an interest in coming up. If the exchange rate on the Canadian vs. US dollar stays anywhere close to where it is today it would make for an inexpensive trip! 

Speaking of distances... if you're thinking of coming here are some approximate one way travel distances:

Great Falls MT: 400 miles
Spokane WA: 425 miles
Portland OR: 775 miles
San Sioux Falls SD: 1250 miles
Denver CO: 1175 miles
Fransisco CA: 1300 miles
Los Angeles CA: 1600 miles
Kansas City MO: 1600 miles
Phoenix AZ: 1625 miles
Louisville KY: 2000 miles
Knoxville TN: 2200 miles
Raleigh NC: 2475 miles
Miami FL: 3025 miles


Edmonton AB: 400 km
Vancouver BC: 950 km
Saskatoon SK: 725 km
Regina SK: 875 km
Winnipeg MB: 1425 km
Toronto ON: 3500 km
Montreal QC: 3625 km


So consider yourself invited! I hope to have my new Festiva project car done in time for the meet.


8th ANNUAL WESTIVA

When: Saturday July 16, 2016
Where: Wedge Pond Day Use Area, Kananaskis, Alberta

Who: Ford Festiva and Aspire fans and anyone interested along with owners, fans etc of other econoboxes from the era.

Why: Why not?


If you'd like more information either leave a comment here or check out the "Meets & Events" section at FordFestiva.com

Update: It was a great day! Follow this link for a bit of a write up and some photos.