To quote the Canadian group, The Irish Rovers (am I showing my age by knowing who they are?), "Wasn't that a party?"
I refer of course to the City of Weyburn's blowout celebration of its 100th year as a city, held on Aug. 1-5 with a whole long list of events and activities in several venues.
In talking with Mayor Button afterwards, she pointed out that the city wasn't really interested in "pomp and pageantry", but in having a party at which all citizens could celebrate and enjoy, all ages and all walks of life.
I got out to as many venues as I could, which resulted in the variety of photos used in last week's Weyburn Review and as seen in the photo gallery under the title "Centennial", and even at that I couldn't get out to everything.
From what I saw, however, there was definitely a party all over the place, starting out with the youth art show and sale on Aug. 1 (with two of my daughters, Johanna and Deborah, exhibiting recent works) and the Rotary reunion supper, then there was the Heritage Village open for demos and displays on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday; the meet-and-greet on the Friday night; the Centennial supper and show, and Centennial concert, both Saturday evening; the pancake breakfast Saturday, the school tours, church service and alumni choir concert on Sunday, and then the whole weekend wrapping up with fireworks.
I'm sure I probably missed a few other things, like the provincial horticulture show and the museum which were both also busy venues, and the Leisure Centre was hopping (and doing swimmingly), and the T.C. Douglas Centre was kept busy with three performances of Ed Willett's play, "Circle the Crops", for which people were turned away at all three performances. (As some people told me, they could've easily slotted in one or two more performances to accommodate the demand to see it; with three, I didn't have time to go see it and I really wanted to.)
Throughout the city there were lots of visitors and lots to do and see; when I left the Heritage Village after being there for a couple hours on the Saturday, the number of cars parked all up Signal Hill and on 10th Ave. was probably the largest number of vehicles I've ever seen parked there for one of these events.
The fireworks were pretty decent, better (I thought) than the Canada Day lights show, and I was able to get some good shots there too.
All in all, I found there was plenty for everyone to see and do; if, say, you weren't into country music, you could've just taken in the Stephen Maguire show, or the alumni choir concert; in the end, we all had a party to be proud of.
