West Coast Polo Fest brings top-tier competition to Delta

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The West Coast Polo Fest, an international polo tournament, is taking place on Aug. 10 and 11 at the Vancouver Polo Club in Delta, featuring polo viewing, food trucks, games, and live music.  

The history of polo in Vancouver dates as early as the 1920s, however, the sport was slowly displaced as hunter jumpers grew in popularity, reads the Vancouver Polo Club’s website. A local family brought polo back into Vancouver’s limelight in 2014 by starting up the festival.

“The idea of the polo festival was to introduce the sport of polo to people and let them know that polo exists in Vancouver,” says Paul Sullivan, who attended the first festival and decided to get involved by purchasing a 20-acre property in Delta along with several other people, which would later become the home base for the Vancouver Polo Club.

This year, the festival has a “stage coach, country rock” theme, Sullivan says, featuring a live band and DJ. 

“It is going to be a country music festival and a polo tournament all together,” he says, adding previous festivals were often themed after countries. 

Six teams will be competing for victory at the festival, including professional polo players from Argentina and the United States. The event will start with an opening ceremony at noon, which will involve 40 horses, the national anthem, and a parade of the horses. 

“After the opening, we will start game number one and then we’ll do game number two. After game number two, we will do a champagne divot stomp,” Sullivan says.   

“A divot stomp is when we invite all the spectators out onto the polo field to replace the divots from the horses that chew up the field when they play. It is a tradition in polo to do a divot stomp. Everybody will come out and they will get a free drink.”

There will be a grand prize at this year’s event, which is one ounce of solid gold. Donated by Galloper Gold, a sponsor of the event, the gold is worth $3,200, and anyone who attends the event and enters their name is eligible to win. 

“We prepare all year for this [festival]. It’s our big tournament this year and it’s also our big social event,” Sullivan says. 

The event will raise money for the Vancouver Polo Club’s charity partner, the Southlands Riding Club Rescue and Rehabilitation Program, Sullivan says. 

“They rescue horses from being slaughtered. They train them and they sell them to people, so they get back into working,” he says. 

General admission for full access to the two-day event is $40, and entry is free for those under 18. Attendees also have the option of tailgating, which is $200 for one day or $250 for the weekend, in which people can pack up their car to watch the tournament from the sidelines. Each tailgate package comes with four general admission tickets. 

For more information about the festival, visit vancouverpolo.com/.