Hockeyfest 2025 is coming to Prince George for the first time ever. Photo courtesy: Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation

By Tommy Osborne

Cancer Care fundraiser

Hockeyfest 2025 coming to Prince George for first time ever

Jul 29, 2025 | 4:27 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Hockeyfest 2025 is coming to Prince George for the first time ever, bringing the world’s largest road hockey tournament to the CN Centre parking lot. It’s going to bring plenty of hockey action, but it is also a fundraiser for cancer care equipment in the city.

“It’s actually the first time it’s coming to northern B.C., and basically it’s a giant street hockey festival all in support of regional cancer equipment, bringing it to B.C.” said Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation CEO Aimee Cassie.

Hockeyfest travels all across North America, and Cassie is really excited to bring it to Prince George. Not only is it a great time for a city that loves its hockey, it will also be a phenomenal fundraiser for equipment that can help keep cancer patients in the city, instead of having to travel to places like Vancouver.

“The liver retractor, we’re almost done funding. We’re just into the last probably 10% of funding. The breast biopsy equipment is just north of $300,000, and then the other specialized equipment does go over one million dollars. So there’s lots of funding that we’re looking at bringing in to northern B.C. to bring specialized equipment to UHNBC,” Cassie said, when explaining some of the equipment Spirit of the North has spent years fundraising for.

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It’s a cause that hits close to home for Derek Turnbull and his two-year-old son Mavrik, as Mavrik has spent much of his young life undergoing rigorous cancer treatment in Vancouver. This has included:

• Seven rounds of chemotherapy
• Two stem cell transplants
• One tumour reduction surgery

“He’s doing really good. We’ve been back home for a few weeks, we get another couple weeks back at home. He went through all seven rounds of chemo, he’s come out really well at the end of it, two stem cell transplants. And he’s still energetic, he’s putting on weight,” Derek said.

Mavrik has been spending most of his time in Vancouver because of a lack of specialized equipment in Prince George. Derek says it’s difficult to put into words how impactful it would be to keep Mavrik home, but describes it as life changing.

“When you’re in a different place, you lose your support groups, you lose all of your people that you have around you. So being able to keep that also helps your mental health and your stability with everything else,” he said.

Hockeyfest is incredibly personal for the Turnbulls not just because of Mavrik’s current battle against cancer, but also because Mavrik is an incredibly devoted and passionate hockey fan.

He is nonstop playing hockey. He has four favorite players right now that he acts like when he plays hockey, it’s either Riley Heidt or Koehn Ziemmer, if he’s in net it’s Ravensbergen, or he’s Brock Boesser. He just loves all of it,” Derek said.

Hockeyfest will take place from September 19-21, the same weekend as the Prince George Cougars home opener weekend. You can register a team for just $50, and all funds raised go straight back into the community and improving cancer care in the north.

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