Drive-in and fireworks for Canada Day

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Strathmore’s Canada Day celebrations may have changed because of COVID-19, but the show(s) must go on.

The Town of Strathmore and Strathmore and District Agricultural Society are hosting a free family drive-in movie night at the ag society grounds on July 1. The event will follow the format of drive-ins held by the ag society in the past, said CEO and general manager Ryan Schmidt.

To be screened is the 2020 film Dolittle, starring Robert Downey Jr, telling the story of a man who can talk with animals.

The grounds will host 350 cars on a first come, first served basis. According to Schmidt, the typical social distancing rules for non-household members will be in place.

“We’re asking people to remain within an arm’s length of their vehicles,” he said.

The ag society is also looking to provide portable restrooms for attendees to use.

“We’ve been working with Alberta Health Services to ensure we follow all the proper protocols to make sure that happens,” he said. “In which case, people would be allowed to safely go to those.”

Gates open at 8:30 p.m. and the movie starts at 10 p.m. 

“The reason for that is we want to spread out the arrival of everybody,” said Schmidt. “We can’t have everybody show up at 10 minutes to 10 (p.m.) and expect everybody to get parked in time.”

Moviegoers might get distracted by another event planned for Canada Day: Fire on the Lake is a fireworks celebration being touted as the largest such display in Western Canada.

The event is being put on through a partnership between Global Fest, otherwise known as The Calgary Fireworks Festival Society, and Heckya.ca, an event and promotions company that raises awareness through charities, through events and giveaways. The fireworks will be launched from Lakewood in Strathmore starting at 11:30 p.m. on July 1.

The event is a social-distance style adaptation to Canada Day celebrations that is being called a “zero attendance event,” which is made possible by having the fireworks ignite higher than is usual, thus making them visible across a greater area, said Scott Silva, Heckya’s director of business development.

“The fireworks are designed to be a high aerial disbursement,” said Silva. “Typical fireworks go between 350 and 500 feet in the area, but because we are doing the event at the lake, we will have a great venue with open space and a controlled environment – we will be able to get a higher disbursement, which will be 500 to 750 feet in the air.

“What that means is everybody in Strathmore and everybody in the surrounding counties are going to see it from their homes.”

The display will employ six-inch firework shells, which is the standard size for many events, said Ken Goosen, Globalfest’s producer for the event. 

“We’re going to have all sorts of great effects,” he said.

The display, designed by Calgarian Dan Roy of Big Bang Fireworks, will include a recognition of Oh Canada and a piece with a strong Indigenous rooting to it, he said. While Goosen was tight-lipped on the other displays, “it’s definitely going intergalactic,” he said.

The display is a pyromusical, meaning it will be choreographed to music, said Goosen. “We’re covering a lot of diversity in the music choice,” he said. The accompanying tunes will be played on Strathmore’s 104.5 MORE Country radio station, so residents can tune in. The display will also be live streamed on YouTube. 

The event is an attempt to change the current narrative of negativity, said Silva.

“Canadians are very patriotic, and if we don’t have this day to celebrate, we are losing a lot,” he said. “We really wanted to find a way to flip the narrative, but also make this socially adaptive.

“We’re also trying to showcase Strathmore to the entire nation and the entire world.”