PORT HARDY—The traditional parade at noon Saturday will kick off two days of fun, food, games and entertainment as Port Hardy rolls out its annual Filomi Days summer festival July 19-20.
Festival activities will be centred around Carrot Park on the Port Hardy waterfront, with vendor booths, an entertainment stage, beer garden, 3-on-3 volleyball tournament and Sunday’s popular Home Hardware Boat Building contest and race.
But there are plenty of activities taking place in other venues, including the Rotary Club’s Rubber Duck Race down Tsulquate River and a variety of sports competitions, including a slo-pitch tournament at Storey’s Beach, 7-a-side soccer at Port Hardy Secondary School and the Brian Burns Memorial Street Hockey tournament on Hastings Street, across from the park.
Filomi Days also features a pair of fishing derbies. The Filomi Days Derby begins at dawn Friday and wraps up with final weigh-in at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets for the derby are $20 and are available at The Bait Shack, Macandale’s and Jim’s Hardy Sports in Port Hardy. Weigh-ins will be held at The Bait Shack. On Sunday morning, the Masons will host the annual Kids’ Fishing Derby at Sea Gate dock from 8 a.m. ‘til noon, with free entry and lots of prizes.
A new entry on the schedule this year is Pacific Coastal Airlines, which is offering plane rides in its Grumman Goose Saturday afternoon, weather permitting.
Off the schedule, due to shortage of volunteer manpower, is the teen dance normally held Friday evening at the Civic Centre. The adult dance, hosted by the North Island Eagles and featuring live music from the Jam Shack Araknids, will take place Saturday evening at the Civic Centre.
Two other groups which have held events during Filomi Days in recent years have also removed themselves from the weekend’s lineup. The Tri-Port Motor Sports Club, which will run the Soapbox Derby down Main Street Sunday morning, will not hold a stock-car racing event at Tri-Port Speedway, instead moving its race to the following Saturday evening. Also, the Tri-Port Dragon Boat Society will not host a regatta in Hardy Bay this summer.