CHERRY GROVE – When community members come together magic can happen – not to mention unique and grand ideas.
On Aug. 26, the Cherry Grove Ag Society will be hosting the second annual Cherrypalooza and sixth annual Lawn Tractor Races.
While the Lawn Tractor Races and other activities for all ages will take over the Cherry Grove rodeo grounds starting at noon, live music will begin to play at 7 p.m. for an adults-only concert and dance.
Daytime events will include indoor kids' games, while activities outside will include a bouncy slide and an Axes and Apples station.
Meanwhile a variety of food and beverage vendors will be dishing up quick meals and treats all day and night, including Cold Lake Brewing, the Pour House, The Forkinator, Sweet Tooth and Lemonade by Izzy.
Around 9:30 p.m., fireworks will begin to light up the skies over the rodeo grounds for the entire community to enjoy.
The back-to-back events being held in Cherry Grove at the end of August is one way the Ag Society is “Putting our little village on the map,” said Joe Burge, one of the Cherrypalooza organizers.
Cherrypalooza, an 18-plus event, was imagined by volunteers as a way to attract parents and adults from across the Lakeland who need a night out. It is also a way to raise funds for upgrades needed at the Cherry Grove Community Hall and grounds.
“Because we are a non-profit organization, every bit of our funds we raise through the day's events goes to upgrading our facilities,” Burge told Lakeland This Week.
“Our community hall is in desperate need of a new roof and some upgrades... Our main goal is to be able to keep improving our community facilities to be able to make these events bigger and better.”
The Saturday night event will feature two local cover bands, Main Street and the Renée Malo Band.
The community hall’s covered outdoor arena will have privacy curtains hung around the perimeter, with the stage set up directly in the center of the rink. Around the dance floor will be tables, chairs as well as a beer garden.
“Come rain or shine, it doesn't matter the whole facility is covered, but you still get the atmospheric air that's coming in to make it such a good experience that you don't have to worry about weather,” Burge added.
Tickets for Cherrypalooza are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. With free camping on site, there is no excuse for concert-goers to drink and drive.
At dusk, the Ag Society will be taking advantage of unused fireworks from its rained-out Canada Day celebration.
“The fireworks show is an all-ages event and should be around half an hour to 45 minutes long,” said Burge.
Looking to the future, Burge says Cherrypalooza, in conjunction with the lawnmower races, is something that the Ag Society hopes to see grow and expand year after year.
“It's a great event, but it's also a simple event,” he said, adding that next year a Big Valley Jamboree performer is already lined up to perform at the third annual Cherrypalooza.
Lawn Tractor Races
On more than one occasion, the Cherry Grove Lawn Tractor Races have seen the number of spectators nearly double. But how could adults cruising around a track on customized ride-on lawnmowers not attract a crowd?
Hoping to beat last year’s number of more than 500 spectators, Lawn Tractor Race organizer Aaron Pottleberg is also expecting “around 40 or so mowers to show up from all across Alberta” to compete this year.
“The word is getting out more and more, and people are travelling further and further away to come up to the races,” he said.
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Race participants have the option to compete in one of three classes – Stock, Modified and Super Modified.
“Stock is our entry level class, and then we've got Modified which you start seeing pully swaps and governor stuff but it's still a basic lawnmower engine,” Pottleberg described. “Then we've got Super Modified, which you can put a snowmobile engine in, or you can rebuild your engine with performance parts, bringing your speed closer to 80 km/hr or so.”
Pottleberg suspects one of the reasons why the number of Lawn Tractor Race spectators continues to grow every year is the aspect of curiosity. Another reason, “People don’t realize what they can do with some of their old relics that have been sitting out back in their yard for the last 10 years,” he laughed.
“We strive to keep the lawn mowers close to the fans when they are staged so that you can get that interaction between the spectators and the racers. We find every year that somebody who was a fan last year, now all of a sudden has a lawn mower for the next year’s races.”
A new addition to this year’s races will be John Deere pedal tractors that were donated to the Cherry Grove Ag Society by Brandt Tractor in Fort McMurray.
Parents will be able to register their children for a draw and the lucky racers whose names are pulled will get to go head-to-head with their peers on the main track during intermissions. Participants will be organized into groups based on their heights and will compete six at a time.
With all the things you can do during the day whether young or old, there's something for everyone to do that is fairly inexpensive, Pottleberg noted. “It is $5 per person, but kids under 12 are free.”
He added, “Everything is a fundraiser for the Ag Society, so the more people that come out, the better we can support our community as well.”
The Cherry Grove Ag Society has also launched a month-long 50/50 raffle leading up to the event on Aug. 26. Raffle tickets can be purchased using a QR code provided by the Ag Society.
