Billy Barker Days founder returns to Quesnel as parade marshal for 50th anniversary

When Jess Ketchum helped launch Billy Barker Days 50 years ago, the goal was simple: create a summer festival that would bring visitors to Quesnel while giving local residents something [...]

Billy Barker Days founder returns to Quesnel as parade marshal for 50th anniversary Published 8:37 am Wednesday, July 15, 2026 When Jess Ketchum helped launch Billy Barker Days 50 years ago, the goal was simple: create a summer festival that would bring visitors to Quesnel while giving local residents something to celebrate. Now, the festival’s founding president is returning to his hometown as parade marshal for its 50th anniversary.

“I was the founding president, so the first president of Billy Barker Days, but that just meant that nobody else wanted the job,” Ketchum joked. At the time, Ketchum was heavily involved with the Quesnel Chamber of Commerce. He said a group of younger members believed the community needed a signature summer event.

“A bunch of us rather young folks in the chamber at the time thought we needed to have something in Quesnel that would draw tourists to the area, but also provide local people with something to do during the summer,” he said. “There was a winter festival at the time, but not a summer festival.” The group approached then-mayor Ceal Tingley and city council with the idea.

“When we made our presentation to city council, (Tingley) said, ‘Fine, we certainly agree. Go do it.’ So he turned it around to us pretty quickly, and off we went to try to figure out what it was we could do.”

The committee chose to build the festival around the Gold Rush because of Quesnel’s close ties to Barkerville and the Fraser River Gold Rush. “We felt that was an appropriate theme and would appeal to a lot of people from outside the Cariboo, outside the Quesnel area, and particularly in the Lower Mainland.” The organizers also decided to hold the festival on the same weekend as the Quesnel Rodeo, despite initial concerns from rodeo organizers.

Ketchum said he worked closely with longtime rodeo organizer Gus Cameron to ensure the two events could complement one another. “Those of us with the Billy Barker Days group, the committee, were really dedicated to ensuring that the rodeo continued to be a big success because it was a well-organized, well-run and very successful event already.” The inaugural festival featured Gold Rush-themed events including a Billy Barker Ball, a frontier breakfast, gold panning competitions and a river raft race, but Ketchum said the committee knew they couldn’t organize everything themselves.

“We came up with the strategy that we would go to every organization in Quesnel that we could find, and challenge them to organize an event,” he said. “We didn’t care what it was... Just hold an event so that there was lots of activities going on in the community over the period of Billy Barker Days.”

Local organizations answered the call, organizing everything from a fly-in at the airport to four-wheel-drive rallies, drag racing, stock car racing, dances and other community events. “It was a true community event,” Ketchum said. “People were into it.”

Looking back five decades later, Ketchum said he’s amazed by what Billy Barker Days has become. “You always have hope, and I certainly had enough hope that it would. But to see it last this long and being vibrant as it is, is a big pleasure to me.

I’m very proud of it. Proud of the community, actually, and the many members that stepped up and helped keep it going.” He said one of his strongest memories from the first festival came after it was over.

“I became very good friends with Gus Cameron from the Rodeo Association, and a real stand-out (memory) for me was becoming friends with Gus, and him saying to me at the end of the first annual Billy Barker Days that it had worked, and there was no reason why we couldn’t do it again in the future.” Ketchum believes the festival’s continued success comes down to community involvement. “The whole idea of having groups sponsor these individual events—that strategy, I think, has held up really well,” he said.

“Quesnel is very community friendly, and I think that has played a big role in the success and longevity of Billy Barker Days.” This year, Ketchum will serve as parade marshal, an honour he said means a great deal. “I was very, very pleased and honoured to be invited to be the parade marshal this year for this significant anniversary,” he said.

“While I may be the parade marshal, there have been hundreds of individuals who have been organizing these events... over 50 years to keep this festival going as one of the most established community festivals in British Columbia.” As the community celebrates the milestone, Ketchum hopes people remember the volunteers who have made Billy Barker Days possible. “I hope they remember to acknowledge the organizers and to thank the volunteers who have put so much energy into it,” he said.

“I think that it’s important that people take a moment to really appreciate that this is a tremendous opportunity to visit with friends and family, and to celebrate the fact that they live in a good community.” Looking to the future, he hopes the festival continues to evolve while remaining rooted in the history that inspired it. “I hope that in 50 years, Billy Barker Days is still driving the theme of Billy Barker, the Gold Rush, the establishment of communities like Quesnel as a result of that early history,” he said.

“The importance of the committee renewing itself all the time, looking for new people to become involved with new ideas... (is) keeping Billy Barker Days not only going, but fresh.”