What to Do in Port Coquitlam on the Labour Day Long Weekend

Labour Day weekend in Port Coquitlam is the city's last scheduled blowout of summer, and for once it leads with something you can put on a calendar: a free outdoor movie under the lights at Gates Park on Saturday night. The rest of the weekend is trails, spray parks and riverside, which is to say it is PoCo doing the things PoCo is actually good at.

Saturday night: the movie at Gates Park

Cinema Under the Stars closes its season with a final screening on Saturday, September 5 at Gates Park, Field #2 — this year's film is Zootopia 2, starting around eight once the light is gone. It is free. Bring blankets or low lawn chairs, bring your own snacks if you like (outside food is allowed), or work the concession when you get there. The city's calendar lists an eight thirty slot alongside the movie page's eight o'clock start, so arrive by seven forty-five and you will be early for either version.

The practical intelligence here is simple: this fills in fast, families claim territory with blankets well before dark, and the exit afterward is a slow river of strollers. Sit near the edges if leaving quickly matters to you.

Bike the Dike, Before the Movie

Before the movie, there is one more piece of summer to close out. Watershed Watch Salmon Society's self-guided Bike the Dike route has been open all summer, and this year it runs right through Labour Day itself, September 7, not just the Saturday. The route follows the dikes for a roughly 24-kilometre loop, with an optional 10-kilometre extension out to the Addington Point viewing platform. Self-guided means you roll up, ride the route at whatever pace the family negotiates, and treat the trail signs as your tour guide.

That trail, all twenty-five kilometres of it, is the best thing this city owns, and Labour Day weekend is about its last comfortable stretch of the year for doing the full loop without overheating. September changes the light on the Pitt River reaches; even the sections you have ridden a dozen times look new in it.

Water, of both kinds

If your long weekend plan involves indoor swimming, change it: Hyde Creek Recreation Centre's pool is closed for maintenance September 1 through 19, covering this entire weekend.

The outdoor options are running instead, and they are free. Spray parks at Castle Park, Lions Park, Port Coquitlam Community Centre and Sun Valley go from nine to eight. Robert Hope's outdoor pool runs afternoon-and-evening sessions, Sun Valley's wading pool keeps its own shorter hours, and everything outdoor is weather-dependent, so a five-second call to the city's pool line beats a carload of disappointed kids. The spray parks run through October 1 this year, per the city's own release, so there is no rush to catch them this particular weekend.

Eating between all of it

A movie night and a dike morning bracket the meals, and PoCo's eating options split cleanly by moment. Pre-movie dinner wants to be quick and close to Gates Park, which is exactly what the places around the downtown core are for; this directory's restaurant and brewery guides cover the reliable ones, and the breweries handle the post-movie adult debrief better than anywhere else in town. Coffee before the dike ride is a Thursday problem solved Friday: sort bikes, snacks and coffee before Saturday morning, because everybody in the Tri-Cities has the same idea at nine.

The Monday fine print

One scheduling note that trips people every year: the Port Coquitlam Farmers Market runs Thursdays, three until seven, which means the last market before the long weekend was September 3. Do not build Saturday around a market that is not happening; the next one falls after the holiday. City Hall is closed on the stat Monday, recreation centres run reduced hours worth phoning about, and the tennis courts at Gates give half their weekend mornings to the club through September, which is fine unless it was your plan.

Two things already on the other side of the weekend, for anyone planning ahead: the Vancouver Giants play a pre-season game at the community centre on September 12, and the Terry Fox Hometown Run returns September 20. Summer leaves PoCo politely, in stages. This weekend is stage one: one free movie under the park lights, one last ride down the dike, and a Monday that finally lets everybody sleep in.