REGINA — The Regina Canada Day festival at Wascana Centre saw one of its largest crowds.
Event organizers said 40,000 people came to the area throughout the day to celebrate the nation’s holiday.
“I think we saw the larger numbers just due to the nature of where we're at with tensions of trade wars,” said Brice Perkins, media co-ordinator for the Regina Canada Day Committee.
Perkins said more people are supporting local, and this was apparent with food truck sales.
“Our board member who runs a food truck said this was one of her best years.”
Many spectators came for the main event, fireworks at the centre’s waterfront.
Perkins said each year, their focus is on creating a bigger and better fireworks show.
This year, event organizers incorporated shells that came from overseas.
“There was a lot more kind of glittery [and] sparkly shells for this year's fireworks.”
Perkins mentioned these new shells had apparently not been used at other festivals in Canada.
As for volunteers, the event’s committee saw the highest turnout for volunteers in the history of its running.
Perkins pointed to passion for Canada as the key reason for this.
“Every single one of our board members will turn around and say that it's one of their favourite things to do because we get to give back to the community in a way that other groups putting on festivals might not be able to.”
Once clean-up finishes, board members will meet in September to discuss what went well this year and what could be incorporated for next year’s festival.
