Canada 150 celebration on Saturday in Wallaceburg

Canada 150 will be celebrated this Saturday, July 1 in Wallaceburg.

And once again, this year’s festivities will include a variety of children’s activities and a massive fireworks display to wrap things up.

“It is all free,” Tom Cogghe, a fireworks committee member, told the Sydenham Current.

“There is no charge at all. The only cost for anybody is if they want to purchase items from the vendors. So there is no fee whatsoever and that has been the whole theme ever since we started doing this, and we are trying to carry on that tradition.”

Cogghe added: “Being 150, we are trying to increase the activities. Have a little bit more there. Being on a Saturday we are going to expect some decent volumes and we are hoping to increase the fireworks show. It is going to be as good as it has been. It is quite a long show as it is now.”

Cogghe said he expects somewhere around 5,000 people to attend the event.

“It has become quite an event,” he said.

The setup of the event is going to be similar to previous years.

Elm Drive, between the UAW Hall and Warwick Drive, and Argyle Avenue, between Chestnut Drive and Elm Drive, will be closed in Wallaceburg on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The opening ceremonies begin at 3 p.m., while the fireworks are expected to start at 10 p.m.

The ‘Large Marge’ eating contest begins at 3:30 p.m., Cogghe said.

“So basically our local restaurant Big Chief is the sponsor of this. (The ‘Large Marge’) is a one pound burger with all the fixings. We will have I believe 10, possibly 12 contestants and they will have to try to eat the burger as fast as they can and whoever wins gets a prize donated from Big Chief and you get a trophy. All of the other contestants will get a small trophy,” Cogghe said.

“We did it two years ago and then last year we went to a pie eating contest. So we are going back to the ‘Large Marge’ hamburger eating contest.”

Local bands Three’s a Crowd, Bed By Nine and Vinyl Revival are providing musical entertainment throughout the event. Alyssa Doherty will be performing soem songs for kids and Eddie Babcock is set to perform a rendition of Oh Canada on the bagpipes, just before the fireworks, Cogghe said.

Kids activities will be taking place from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. as well.

“Balloon twisting, some glitter tattoos, face painting and then we have some bouncy castles,” Cogghe said.

“This year we have tried to increase the volume in that so we have a company coming in called AdventureMania Inflatables. So they are a little bit bigger of a company and it should be a fun event. We have the cow train that we normally have.

There will be some vendors on site selling items, a couple of food vendors and at least one community barbecue.

For the latest updated information on the event, give them a ‘Like’ on Facebook.


– With files from Tami Eagen

- Advertisment -