7,000 people attended Wallaceburg fireworks event

Organizers of the Wallaceburg Fireworks Family Festival are thrilled with the turn out of their annual Canada Day event in Wallaceburg.

Tom Cogghe, a member of the committee, said while they don’t have the exact numbers they feel more people watched the fireworks compared to the previous year.

“Our estimation, I would say at least 7,000 people,” Cogghe said.

“We definitely know we have more than last year. Reports were coming in that there was more and more people out on the street on the outskirts a couple blocks away in their vehicles watching the fireworks themselves so that’s definitely a lot more people.”

Cogghe said plans for next year’s event – the 150th birthday for Canada – are in the preliminary stages.

“We haven’t met together as a committee yet to discuss it but we have had previous conversations of thoughts of wanting to obviously increase the size,” he said.

“I know the firework show now is a great show but we are hoping we can have it a little longer just for this one time. It is a special celebration so we want to make things bigger and better.”

“We started about 3:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. this year. Next year it falls on a Saturday so we are hoping we can possibly start it earlier in the day. Kind of piggy back after the Legion Fishing Derby. Maybe start around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. and thae have a little bit more things throughout the day. Possibly add some shows and have different things. Event and shows or performances going on with some other groups. Obviously when we are expecting to have more people because of the celebration, maybe add a little bit more to the activities we have for the kids.”

Cogghe said other ideas the committee is floating around are more activities for older kid, more bands and possibly a midway.

“A lot of different things to throw around and try to get a good idea of what is going to work best but I think we have a good base and an idea of where we want to start from and go from there,” he said.

The current committee consists of:

– Kevin Roocroft – Chair

– Karen Verstappen

– Jay Smith

– Tom Cogghe

– Kristyna Roocroft

– Travis Hooper

– Eric VanDamme

Cogghe said they are open to adding to the committee.

“We are always keeping it open,” he said.

“We definitely have thoughts of increasing the festival for next year, making it much larger being the 150 year celebration. Definitely have had some people approaching us. So the current committee members are setting a time to discuss that.”

Cogghe added: “We all work closely together throughout the year and as we have been saying all along, this doesn’t come and happen with the success that it does unless we have the volunteers. Obviously the committee members work all year round but throughout the year we also have a lot of other people that help and on the day of the event we had extra volunteers that stepped up and came out but every year is different.”

Anyone interested in joining the committee can call the Homeward Realty office at 519-627-9933 and chat with Kristyna Roocroft or send a message to their Facebook page.

Check out this story for more photos: Canada Day fireworks festival a blast in Wallaceburg