The Prince Albert Kinsmen Club returned with their fourth annual Kinsmen Fest-of-Ale at the Ches Leach Lounge in the Art Hauser Centre on Friday and the crowds came out.
Prince Albert Kinsmen member Shaun Pikaluk was one of the organizers. He said that the crowd numbers were already great ahead of the event with pre-sale tickets rising and walk-up tickets coming in as the evening progressed.
“That’s a good sign that it’s going to be a good night,” Pikaluk said.
There was a nice mix of people according to Pikaluk.
“I mean there’s young, old there’s a good mix,” he said.
Along with a nice mix of people there was a nice mix of products.
Vendors include Phantom Light Distillery Lucky Bastard Distillers, Black Fox Farm Distillery, Last Mountain Distillery and Backroads Distillery – which won world’s best neutral vodka at the World Vodka Awards this year.
“You can get pretty much anything in there, any types of beer, spirits, cider and wine. There’s the local wineries as well,” Pikaluk said.
Having Backroads Distillery was an excellent selling point according to Pikaluk.
With tickets $10 in advance and $20 at the door Pikaluk estimated that the 400 pre-sales put the Kinsmen in a fine place for fundraising.
The people returning in the second year of the return of the event was a sign to Pikaluk that things are gradually returning to normal for the event.
“People are a little more willing. I think even last year people were still a little hesitant about being in crowds. So yeah, but whereas now I think people are just ready,” he explained.
Last year’s event was in a transitional time in the COVID-19 pandemic and he said that there was still some hestitancy,
“Some people are still wearing masks and stuff, which is fine. But now I think people are, are less reluctant to be in crowds and just ready to pick up where things left off before the pandemic,” Pikaluk said.
Pikaluk thanked the vendors for travelling in to support the fundraiser.
“We’ve got vendors from down into the Weyburn area. That’s pretty significant and for them to come up and for, for our show,” he said.
“I’d like to thank them and just thank the public for coming out and supporting our event. Without them, obviously we wouldn’t get the vendors that we have. Yeah, and without them we wouldn’t be able to support our local projects,” Pikaluk said.
The Kinsmen will put all funds raised towards two community projects: the paving of the rink surface at the Carlton Park court for pickleball and basketball, and the diamond conversion project at Crescent Acres.
“We’ve earmarked the profits from this to help pay for those two projects together since it was a multi-year commitment,” Pikaluk said.
An exact fundraising total was unavailable by deadline.
