Fifteen minutes before David Foster’s free concert was about to begin, I was driving into downtown Victoria looking for parking.

Along with what would become a crowd of upward of 70,000 people.

This was not planning.

This was optimism with a steering wheel.

I had already accepted that I might spend the evening circling downtown while Josh Groban sang beautifully somewhere beyond my windshield.

Then it happened.

A car pulled out of a street parking spot.

I pulled in.

About one kilometre from the Inner Harbour.

I sat there for a second wondering whether I should buy a lottery ticket or simply accept that I had just used up all my luck until 2037.

My son Zakary, my nephew, my mom and some friends were joining me. My wife was coming later.

Parking, it turned out, was only Challenge Number One.

My Wife Finds Me by Satellite

By the time my wife arrived, downtown Victoria had become a human Where’s Waldo? puzzle.

Her text was basically:

Where are you?

My answer could have been:

Beside 69,999 other people.

Eventually I shared my phone location.

There I was—a tiny blue dot buried somewhere in the Inner Harbour crowd.

She followed it and found us.

Forget roses and candlelight.

After enough years of marriage, romance becomes:

“I can see your location. Stop moving.”

Once we were together, we settled in for what became the best outdoor concert I’ve ever attended.

David Foster spent the evening at the piano, telling stories and bringing out one famous friend after another.

Josh Groban. Katharine McPhee. Loren Allred. The Tenors. CeeLo Green. Pia Toscano. And more.

One of our highlights was Loren Allred singing “Never Enough” from The Greatest Showman.

Then Josh Groban came out.

For several minutes, I completely forgot about my incredible parking spot.

That’s how good he was.

Then One Song Took Me Back to Quesnel

At one point, David played “Winter Games,” the music he wrote for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

Those first notes brought back memories immediately.

But the moment that really got me was when Rick Hansen appeared and “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” was performed.

Suddenly I wasn’t standing in Victoria anymore.

I was a boy back in Quesnel, B.C.

I remember Rick Hansen rolling through my hometown during the final B.C. stretch of his extraordinary Man in Motion World Tour.

He had spent 26 months wheeling more than 40,000 kilometres through 34 countries.

As a kid, I knew I was watching something important.

Almost four decades later, there he was again.

And all those memories came flooding back.

My nephew and some of the people with us didn’t know the whole story, so I found myself explaining who Rick Hansen was, what he had done and why this particular song meant so much.

Apparently I had become the historical commentary track for the concert.

But that’s what music can do.

One minute you’re standing beside Victoria Harbour.

The next, you’re a kid in Quesnel again.

Forty Years—and $14.5 Million

The weekend was really about something much bigger than the music.

The David Foster Foundation started in 1986 and has now helped more than 1,600 Canadian families whose children need life-saving organ transplants.

The night before our concert, a black-tie gala with guests including Prince Harry, Meghan, Bill Gates, Adam Levine and Rick Hansen raised an astonishing $14.5 million.

Then the next night, Victoria got the thank-you:

A huge free concert in the Inner Harbour.

No tuxedo.

No ticket.

No dinner with Bill Gates.

In my case, not even a sensible parking plan.

Just tens of thousands of people enjoying a beautiful summer evening together.

And then things got weird.

Never Give a Canada Goose Firepower

The Canadian Forces Snowbirds flew overhead.

Then darkness arrived and the drones took over.

I’d wanted to see a big drone show for years, and watching hundreds of lights create enormous images above Victoria Harbour was spectacular.

Then they formed a Canada goose.

Fair enough.

Very Canadian.

But apparently someone on the production team thought:

You know what Canada geese need? Weapons.

Suddenly fire was shooting from its wings.

I’ve dealt with enough Canada geese to know they already have confidence issues.

They did not need this upgrade.

Then came the fireworks.

And as I stood there with my wife, Zakary, my mom, my nephew and our friends, looking over the harbour with 70,000 people around us, I thought about how close I had come to missing the whole thing.

I had only heard about it a couple of days earlier.

Sometimes the best experiences happen that way.

You hear about something.

You say yes.

You somehow find the greatest parking spot in Victoria.

Your wife tracks you by satellite.

A song sends you back to your childhood.

And before the night is over, you’re watching a flaming Canada goose fly over the Inner Harbour.

Try putting that in an itinerary.

Normand Schafer
Founder, Far and Away Adventures

Found the parking. My wife found me. Zakary, Mom and our friends shared the night. The goose had flamethrowers.