Weyburn's Centennial weekend celebration was "a phenomenal success", said the Centennial coordinator Sharon Elliott on Monday.
With perfect weather conditions throughout the weekend, large crowds attended the many events and venues held around the city, starting with the Rotary Club reunion supper and the youth art show and sale, both on Thursday evening, the unveiling of the Walk of Fame on Friday afternoon followed by the meet-and-greet that evening.
The Centennial supper and show on Saturday had close to 1,000 people on hand to hear Stephen Maguire and his musical memories show.
"Stephen Maguire said he was treated like royalty. They were dancing in the aisles to his music," said Elliott. "I think the whole weekend was a phenomenal success. People were so happy to walk into the room and meet friends."
She noted around 700 had registered with the city to get a name tag (there was no charge to register), so combined with the many people who didn't register, there was a lot of people in the city for all the events.
The other big event Saturday was the Dean Brody concert at Crescent Point Place; organizer Rochelle Wendt said they had about 800-850 in attendance for that.
"Everybody who was there had a great time, and the bands really enjoyed themselves. Both bands commented on how much fun everybody was having. We were really pleased with the way everything went," said Wendt, noting all the comments she was seeing on Facebook were very positive, saying what a good event the whole Centennial was.
At the concert, there were no security issues, she said. "We had so many volunteers; Weyburnites came through in a big way once again."
A special feature of the concert was local singer Tenille Arts getting a chance to sing a duet with opening act Codie Prevost.
Asked how the performance was for her, Tenille said, "I actually wasn't very nervous at all, I was just excited. A lot of my friends came out and supported me. It was awesome and the band was great. We were hanging out backstage afterwards, and the band was just great."
The Heritage Village had large crowds throughout the weekend, as did the Leisure Centre, which had a Fun-in-the-Sun set of activities on Saturday along with free swimming.
The Soo Line Historical Museum saw hundreds come through their doors, and they ran out of pie about 2:30 p.m.; over 350 people signed the register on Saturday alone.
The premiere performance of "Circle the Crops" at the Tommy Douglas Centre was a strong success for the theatre group. Crocus 80 president, Sabrina Kraft said, noting they had to turn away some 30 or 40 people on the first night.
"We started with a full house on Friday night, and we still had a lot of people wanting seats to the performance. So Sunday was a great success too, since we had a lot of people who missed it on Friday coming out to support our cast."
"It was really wonderful to have Edward Willett, the author of the play, get up on stage on Friday night in his cameo," said Kraft. "Later in the evening, Willett joined the cast and their families for the cast party."
"Willett had mentioned he was approached by another theatre group from Camrose, Alta., and they wanted to do the play too. Also, from seeing us perform it, he also had ideas on how to make it better, stronger."
Kraft felt that the community response to the play was fantastic. "They were laughing, which is always a great response. We had many people who wanted to see it again and again."
For those residents who missed out on seeing "Circle the Crops" during homecoming weekend, Kraft has good news. "Access 7 filmed our final dress rehearsal, and they have agreed to air it on Channel 7 during the month of August."
Two of those in the audience Sunday evening was Mayor Debra Button, and her guest, Weyburn's newest doctor, Dr. Mahmood Beheshti.
"We were pleased he was able to join us for the Centennial. He joined me for the supper, was at the Dean Brody concert, and (Sunday) was at the play. He's quite excited to be in Weyburn," said the mayor.
She also got around to many of the venues with her children, including at the Leisure Centre and Heritage Village, and was happy to see the large crowds that came out for all the events.
"I have to say it was a smashing success. I don't think there was any event that suffered because of another. Some people did like I did, going to as much as I could. I'm so pleased with the party that we had here in Weyburn," said Mayor Button.
"We didn't want pomp and pageantry, but we wanted a party to celebrate the Centennial," she added, noting the fireworks on Sunday evening were fantastic. "We as a city did ourselves really proud. The Centennial Committee set the bar really high for whatever the next event is that Weyburn has."
At the Weyburn Comp, there were seven class reunions, said committee member Bob King, who set up several tables of memorabilia of the Collegiate and the Comp for tours on Sunday, with a lot of people wanting to see the Collegiate before it was torn down, and also the new construction of the Triple C Centre.
"It went quite well. A large number of people came back and reminisced," said King, noting a couple of the class reunions, like 1988 and 1957, had well over 30 each.
One of the most well-known former students was actress Jean (Armit) Freeman, who graduated from the Collegiate in 1952. She took part in the alumni choir concert on Sunday evening, sharing memories about growing in up in Weyburn, as well as taking part in many of the events. "I think there was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and work that the volunteers put into this. Weyburn was a wonderful place to be born in and to grow up in. I had a lot of good memories," said Freeman.
Freeman and Isabelle Butters co-hosted the alumni choir concert, and Butters said of the weekend, "I think it was a great celebration, and the homecoming part was most important to an awful lot of people. People are the important thing, and the meet-and-greet (on Friday) was enjoyable."
As the chair of the Centennial committee, she said it was a privilege to help organize the event, and noted the City will mark the Centennial one last time with a White Night celebration on New Year's Eve, including fireworks.
