CL's annual Homecoming celebration grows every year
By Shara JJ Cooper
It’s grown again.
The 5th annual Christina Lake Homecoming Summer Festival has gone beyond expectations with a large line up of vendors and performances at the July 11th event.
According to organizer Cindy Alblas, they had over 80 vendors at the event plus 14 performances. This year, the event expanded into the evening with live music, kids activities, Luminosity (the local fire troupe) and a boat parade on the agenda.
“The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Alblas. “It was certainly an amazing start to our first ever ‘Light up the Lake Boat Parade.’ People are already booking the time off for next year (and) planning how they will be decorating their boats. The town is still glowing from an amazing weekend.”
The beach event was particularly successful and the provincial park car counter at the beach counted over 1600 cars throughout the day.
Alblas said the evening entertainment at the beach was an “absolute success” and that it was much bigger than they could have anticipated.
The day started with a pancake breakfast in the morning and the vendors set up at the Christina Lake Community Hall. Live music included singing Christina Lake’s official song and special guest Amanda Thate. Ice cream and other treats were served to visitors.
In the evening, the festivities moved to the public beach and guests enjoyed the water, listened to live music and took part in activities including children making paper bag lanterns. As night fell, guests go to watch the boat parades, where participants lit up their boats and paraded parallel to the beach. Luminosity did their fire show and more music was played.
Christina Lake community members have decided to keep the homecoming event on the second weekend in July and have already started plans for the next year, including new ideas on how to light up the boats.
Albas said that while the boat parade was truly special, it was Christina Lake itself that really shone.
