BONNYVILLE – The Bonnyville Friendship Centre has postponed its National Indigenous Day event, that was originally set for June 23, due to a scheduling conflict.
The silver lining is that the event will now be even bigger with more activities, including the chance to go up in a hot air ballon.
Cynthia Gamache, from the Bonnyville Friendship Centre, explained that the new event will be called the Voices of the Land Festival, and is set to take place on July 24 from 3 – 7 p.m. at the Centennial Centre in Bonnyville.
The event will have both indoor and outdoor activities and include a powwow, drumming, a market, trackless train rides, free barbecue and ice cream cones, pony rides, glitter tattoos, a petting zoo, reptile zoo, dunk tank, Axes and Apples, and more.
“We’re really highlighting all the diverse cultures. We have dancers coming from across Turtle Island . . . It’s all very exciting. We’ve got the free barbecue . . . with a ton of free activities. . . And then you can sign up to go up in the hot air balloon. I believe it goes up around 50 to 60 feet. We were just so excited when we got confirmation that we could do the hot air ballon. We were ecstatic - the whole office was,” said Gamache.
She spoke about the amazing team at the Bonnyville Friendship Centre, whose creativity and passion for the community means that a lot of time and effort gets put into hosting unique and accessible events.
“We work as a team and put in so much thought and effort into everything that we do, and how we can give the most to communities,” said Gamache.
Gamache said there will also be a volunteer from the Bonnyville Regional Fire Department coming in to be part of the dunk tank.
“We are having a huge vendor market, so anybody wanting to set up a table and sell their [items] can do so for free. They just have to reach out to me . . . That will all take place inside the Cenovus Arena at the C2, where the powwow exhibition and drummers are going to be as well,” said Gamache.
