Canada Day celebrations will roar back to life in St. Paul this weekend, thanks to Champions for Change and the Town of St. Paul. Fireworks will light up the sky at 11 p.m. on Thursday.
This year’s activities will build on last year’s success, said Amil Shapka with Champions.
Festivities run from 9:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday outside of the Rec Centre with entertainment all day, including Cassidy Zahar, the Silhouette Dancers, Ky Babyn, WT Goodspirit, Michaud Family Fiddlers, Clarence Smith and friends with old time music as well as other performers.
Other activities include free birthday cake for Canada, a dunk tank, craft tent, farmers market, sand pile and balloons. Athletes can test their strength with a radar gun sports cage and sports fans can catch the Lakeland League in action when the St. Paul Cubs bat off against Goodfish at 10 a.m. and another league match at 2 p.m.
The theme is something for everyone and affordable family fun, said Shapka. “Growing up here it was the biggest weekend of the year,” he recalls. “I think that’s what we’re trying to resurrect.”
Organizers wanted to centre the celebrations around family, “keep it simple, make it affordable so more families can participate,” he added.
While many people travel to neighbouring communities for Canada Day, the committee aims to support local artists and “the good things we have here, and hopefully we can keep people in our community because we think it’s great.”
