It’s summertime in Kamloops — and the living is anything but easy. It’s fun, it’s engaging, it’s busy, it’s community. First, let’s dispatch with the must-always-remind message during a Kamloops summer: Parts of the province are burning and who knows what will come as we move through this hot, dry season? If you haven’t done it yet, please register for our Voyent application, a communication app the city and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District use to send out rapid, targeted information on emergencies and any other vital notifications. You can do it online through the Apple or Google stores. Now on to community. Let’s start with that wonderful annual summer experience, Music in the Park. There are still many weeks of music left to plant your chair or blanket in from of the Rotary Bandshell in Riverside Park at 7 p.m. to listen to a fantastic group of musicians. For those wanting to make it a longer evening — the music stops at 8:30 p.m. — there are food trucks in the parking lot at nearby Heritage House. And as we have been doing for more years than I can remember, we thank Henry Small for his work putting this together. We should also thank sponsor BCLC, which alongside the city ensures there is Music in the Park each summer. On Wednesday, July 23, BCLC takes control of the stage for its Midsummer Music Jam, which this year features country singers Aaron Pritchett and Julian Austin. Less than two kilometres away from Riverside is Prince Charles Park, site of more of the city’s artistic talent. As they declare on their website, 21 years ago Project X Theatre changed the way Kamloops goes to the Theatre when it produced The Two Gentlemen of Verona under those magnificent branches in the park. This year, the troupe alternates between a comedic delight with The Emperor’s New Threads and the triumphant Thumbelina, the first play written by another member of our citywide community, Jake Kopytko. The final curtain falls, metaphorically speaking, on Saturday, July 26. Under the live entertainment outdoors category is the sixth annual free Kamloops Buskers Festival, which runs from Thursday, July 24, to Sunday, July 27. The park and other downtown venues will feature acrobats, magicians, jugglers, hula hoopers, artists and musicians. The weekend of Aug. 8 to Aug. 10 will be bustling downtown as Riverside Park hosts the final Daybreak Rotary Ribfest, with Hot Nite in the City and the Kamloops Dragon Boat Festival carrying on nearby. On Saturday, Aug. 9, the community can gather along the South Thompson River for the Kamloops Dragon Boat Festival. There will be plenty of racing to watch. Ribfest is amount more than ribs. In addition to Music in the Park, it will have entertainers and a kids zone. All profits the organizing Rotary club takes in have gone and will again go to local charities. Over the past 12 years, that has included mental-health programs at the local branch of BCY, Alzheimer’s Kamloops, the Kamloops Brain Injury Association, the PIT Stop, Kamloops Food Bank, Marjorie Willoughby Snowden Memorial Hospice House, Kamloops literacy programs, the nursing building at Thompson Rivers University among others. Hot Nite has been bringing car enthusiasts together for 30 years and as it enters its fourth decade, you can expect the downtown streets to be one big display of cars and trucks. Five-hundred vehicles are expected to be shown along and just off Victoria Street on Saturday, Aug. 9, alongside entertainment. Organizers have also planned a poker run starting at 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 8, at the Plaza Hotel. If you head downtown for any of the music, boat races, ribs or vehicles, consider taking advantage of the bike valet the city runs every year. This year it has been moved next to Sandman Centre. The city’s slogan is Making Kamloops Shine – but that sentiment is not unique to those who make sure you have water, roads, buses, parks and so many other amenities. It belongs just as much to the people who create these events that draw community together and bring new communities and their talents to the city. They make Kamloops shine. Dale Bass is a Kamloops city councillor and deputy mayor for the month of July.