When an Aircraft Engine Shop Throws a Carnival: Inside MTU Maintenance Canada's National Family Day
Most days, the lot outside MTU Maintenance Canada's Richmond facility is full of the quiet precision you'd expect from a company that overhauls jet engines for a living. For one day in late June, it turned into a full-scale carnival, with bumper cars boxed in behind blue inflatable walls, a bungee trampoline rig throwing kids twenty feet in the air, and a mini donut and Oreo truck parked next to a Delta Fire Rescue engine kids could climb into. Thousands of MTU employees and their families showed up for what the company billed as its first Canada-wide Family Day, and after fifteen years of shooting corporate events around Vancouver, it's genuinely one of the best days I've had behind a camera this year.
The scale of it is what struck me first. This wasn't a lunchroom potluck, it was a coordinated, multi-zone event with a beer garden and cocktail bar for the adults, a coloring and craft table with MTU's own plush blue bee mascot printed on the activity sheets, a green-screen photo booth, giant lawn games, and a zip line with its own weight-restriction signage and lineup. Getting all of it on camera meant working the whole footprint solo with our lead videographer Flynn Flores covering B-roll and interviews alongside me, moving between quiet one-on-one moments (a father guiding his daughter's hands onto a bumper car wheel, a toddler perched on her mom's hip clutching a plush bee) and the loud communal ones happening thirty feet away.
The car show gave the day its centerpiece. A classic car competition ran alongside the family activities, with owners lined up next to their entries for a judged Show & Shine, capped off by an awards ceremony on a small stage where MTU's mascot handed out trophies to category winners while a live band played through the afternoon heat. Company leadership took the mic under a tent to thank the volunteers and staff who pulled the event together, and that mix of corporate recognition next to a kid white-knuckling a zip-line harness is what made the day feel less like a company picnic and more like a genuine community celebration.
We covered the full day on photo and video, and the recap video from the shoot is below. It captures the energy of the crowd, the car show, and the kids' activities better than any single frame could.
If you're planning a similar company-wide event or family day, visit our Event Photo and Video page to see how we can help.
