Canada Day is always a special day for us Canadians and has
become a bigger celebration in Kamloops at Riverside Park over the years. It attracts thousands of us that come to see
the artists of the area and the food vendors as well as plenty of
entertainment.
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| Group Drum Roll |
We arrived just as the drumming began. It was a Guinness World Record attempt with
multicultural drummers performing. They
attempted at “Most Nationalities in a Simultaneous Drum Circle” last year but
didn’t make it so the hope was to be successful to break the record for “Largest
Group Drum Roll” this year. I’ve heard
no news on that yet. They passed out
small drums for the spectators to join in, grandson using one in corner of photo.
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| Crowds and more crowds |
This well shaded park was packed with vendors and those who
came to enjoy the day. Riverside Park
has been the centre of summer activities for so many years but not many the
size of this one. It does lead to
parking difficulties but if one is willing to walk, spots can be found. The City of Kamloops offers free bus service
for the day so that sure simplifies things for those who wish to use them.
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| Kids bouncy castle fun |
There is a nice playground for the youngsters in the park but for this
special day, they offer plenty of extras like this bouncy castle shown here. No shortage of lineups of kids waiting to get
into it and have their turn at fun.
Patience applies in several areas of the Park today, lineups are long.
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| Kamloops Lawn Bowling |
Lawn bowling has had this area in Riverside here for many
years. As a matter of fact, these greens
were ready for play in 1923! The
Kamloops Lawn Bowling Club was formed the year before and has been active ever
since, but with some changes in rules, as women were only allowed to use the
green when men were not back then. There
are tournaments for those who enjoy the competition of lawn bowling but social
bowling is happening with no set teams, just to have fun with those who show up
on any day.
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| A Special Gift |
There were dozens of very talented artists with booths displaying
their talents in the Park. They sell
their jewelry, knitted goods, pottery, paintings, woodworks, face painting…..
the list could go on. There was one
booth that especially caught my attention and that was “A Special Gift”. These ladies plus one other work all year
round producing these amazing quilts and a never ending list of other
items.
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| Dressed for the occasion |
So many visitors wore red clothes of some sort and accessories
of red, whether flags or other things, but these ones definitely caught my attention.
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| Thompson River beach at Riverside Park |
Riverside Park is right on the Thompson River and has always
been a popular swimming area, too. The
day was still early but with the forecast to reach 30c (86f), the beach would
soon be full of more swimmers, to be sure.
Then they can move onto the food vendors, which offers Multicultural Society
foods from many different cultural groups that represent Kamloops residents, as
well.
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| Kamloops Mounted Patrol |
Rick Wanless (c) has been attending these events and so many
others with his horses and team mates since 1992 as the Kamloops Mounted Patrol
and they still draw plenty of attention wherever they go. Great to see Mr. Wanless still a part of this
great Patrol team. To learn more of the
Patrol, click here.
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| Riverside Park on Canada Day |
FolkFest lineups of local and regional cultural performers promotes
diversity in dance, music, style and language on the stage of the Rotary
Bandshell and were being enjoyed by this large audience. Sights of food vendors, all vendors and more around
Riverside Park. Music in the Park kicked
off July 1 evening with classic rock band Shattered Blue and wow, were they
good! Lead singer had an AMAZING voice,
scheduled to play again July 19th.
One of the best free concerts you may see but the whole lineup looks
great.
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| View from the top of overpass walk |
The cap off for the whole evening was the fantastic
fireworks, but no photos for it, never been good at night shots, lol. We’d been down to the festivities twice and just
weren’t going for a third visit, too late for us old folks. Sorry we missed it but we heard from several
that it was incredible.
There are more photos of Riverside Park on my blog showing quieter
times. Click here to see that.
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