City to bring in Quebec comedy troupe for Canada Day festivities
Live music, face painting, parade and bouncy castle also to be on tap
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Canada's 149th birthday is coming up, and the city is planning music, skits and a parade to ring it in.
Brian Kelln, program manager with the City of Yellowknife, said the city is bringing in Spectacle Corpus, a Quebec troupe that performs humorous skits. The group will perform a skit called Camping Royale, about two queens who go on an "absurd" camping trip.
"It's quite humorous," said Kelln.
There will be two performances of Camping Royale, one at 12 p.m. and another at 3 p.m.
Between earlier in the afternoon Yellowknife musicians Autumn Beemer and Kyle McKee, Digawolf, belly dancing and a performance from Bella Dance Academy.
For children, there will be a bouncy castle, craft tables and face painting.
Kelln said the events hosted by the city will happen down at Somba K'e Civic Plaza.
Everything at the plaza will go down after the parade, hosted by the Rotary Club of Yellowknife.
"We start shortly after the parade, probably within 20 minutes," he said.
Kelln said Canada Day celebrations typically draw about 3,000 to 4,000 people throughout the day.
"Sometimes a little bit more," he said.
"We get that rush right off the parade then it sort of calms down, then we get another rush later on."
There will also be 10 or 15 food vendors present, which Kelln said will serve a variety of foods such as Indian, Vietnamese and vegetarian cuisines.
While there are no city events in the evening, next year - being the 150th anniversary of Canada - the city is looking at doing a larger event.
Kelln said he's been in Yellowknife for 26 years there have always been Canada celebrations in the city as far as he can remember.
He said celebrating Canada is important to the city.
"Everybody seems to show their Canadian pride," he said. "Everybody's dressed up in their maple leafs."
