by Sierra D’Souza Butts
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The World-Spectator
Moosomin & District Regional Park’s Living Skies show brought in a huge crowd during the August long weekend.
With a total of 5,461 tickets sold for the drone and firework shows for Saturday and Sunday, the organizing committee said they were proud to have a great turnout.
“Originally it looked like the pre-sales were low, but we weren’t having an international fireworks competition so we expected it to be low, but in the end it turned out very well,” said Jamie Hintz of the organizing committee.
“By looking at the numbers they were pretty high. The beach was full for the two nights, there was more people on Sunday by the looks of it.”
The drone and firework shows were provided by North Star Fireworks & Entertainment.
In addition to the show on Aug. 5, the live band Odd Man Out played throughout the night.
On Sunday, Aug. 6, the Blu Beach Band performed all night, before and after, the drone and fireworks show.
Throughout both days there were activities for kids and families to enjoy at the lake.
“All of the kids activities went really well. Everyone was happy about that,” said Hintz.
“Inflatable balls were there and kept everyone busy all day.
“Everything went well with the food trucks too, it seems that they were all busy. The vendors were just there on Saturday, the few people I talked to, they were happy with how it turned out.
“All in all I think it was a great weekend.”
The organizing committee was aiming to bring in about 2,000 to 3,000 people for both shows.
“We were hoping for a big crowd. There’s so much stuff going on nowadays, there was a lot of close events going on so we didn’t know what to expect,” said Hintz.
With this year being the first year Moosomin & District Regional Park hosted a firework show since pre-pandemic, Hintz said he thought the combination of a drone show and a firework show worked well together.
“I think it was something North Star wanted to do because they haven’t really done it before and they wanted to come back here,” he said.
“Patrice had been here years ago so they wanted to try it out and see how it would turn out.
“There were lots of good comments about it too. It was totally two different shows, one was lights and pictures in the sky, whereas the fireworks were the sound, the lights, and the affects of it being in the valley with the lake.”
People in the community enjoyed seeing the fireworks, said Hintz.
“Every comment I heard was good. Some people said that they were almost better than the years of the competition,” Hintz said.
“It was all good comments.”
He was asked if there is anything different the organizing committee plans to do for next year’s big event at the lake.
“Probably to just get at it a little bit earlier in the year so we have more time to plan stuff,” he said.
Hintz said the committee has not yet decided what is in store for next year’s August long weekend event.
“We have a meeting on Tuesday so we’ll see what everyone says,” he said.
