Morinville’s biggest summer festival rolls back into town this month with a fun bus, an all-day paint-a-thon and no midway.
The Town of Morinville unveiled the lineup for this year’s Festival Days late last week.
Once dubbed the St. Jean Baptiste Day Festival, this three-day fun-fest has drawn thousands of guests to downtown Morinville since 2010 for rides, games, food, helicopter tours, military and classic car displays, and (in 2015-2016) logger sports. The mostly free event runs from June 21 to 23.
While last year’s event featured a midway, this one’s will not, said town events and cultural programmer Kathleen Ducharme. The town’s usual midway company decided not to come this year, and the town couldn’t find a replacement in time (there aren’t many midways in Alberta, and most have to be booked a year in advance.).
Festival Days still has a lot of other fun activities, though, including a parade, car show, beer garden, free movie night, and the Adventure Bus.
“It’s a 72-passenger school bus that’s been gutted and made into a mini-gym,” Ducharme said – one that includes a rock-climbing wall and a zip line.
Sunny celebration
June 21 is the summer solstice, and this year’s Festival Days will feature a pair of days celebrating the longest day of the year.
In addition to the usual Longest Day of Play all-day 3x3 ball hockey tournament, this year’s festival will feature the Longest Day of Paint organized by the Morinville Art Club.
Club president Rozanna McConnell said many club members struggle to find the time each year to finish their various projects.
“I thought, hey, why not dedicate a full day of sunshine to it?”
The Longest Day of Paint will see artists of all types and skill plying their craft in the St. Jean Baptiste Park gazebo from 5:04 a.m. to 10:07 p.m., McConnell said. While most artists have signed up to do shorter stints, she planned to keep her brushes flying for 17 hours straight, as she had a lot of painting to do for the Whyte Avenue Art Walk in early July.
June 21 is also National Indigenous Peoples Day in Canada, Ducharme said. Town councillors and dignitaries from Alexander First Nation will raise the Treaty 6 flag in St. Jean Baptiste Park at 10 a.m. to celebrate.
In addition to the usual parade, council breakfast and show 'n' shine, June 22 will see about 30 firefighters from across Alberta compete for glory and cash prizes as part of the 9th annual Morinville Firefighters Combat Challenge.
The challenge will see competitors try to lug a hose up four stories, haul a second one up from ground level with a rope, run back down, bash a weight a certain distance with a sledgehammer, blast a target with a pressurized hose and haul a 200-pound dummy over the finish line as quickly as possible, said Morinville firefighter Shane Tellier.
“I think we’ve had guys do it in just under a minute,” he said.
The combat challenge runs from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Ray McDonald arena parking lot.
June 23 will see about 150 people take part in the annual Jessica Martel Memorial Run to raise funds for the Jessie’s House domestic violence shelter now under construction in Morinville, said Jessica Martel Memorial Foundation president Janice Isberg. New to the run this year is a one-kilometre “fun run” of activity stations for youths set up near the main course.
Visit the Town of Morinville Facebook page for a full schedule of events.
