Strathmore will be seeing a lot more fireworks this year, as a partnership between the Strathmore Ag Society, GlobalFest and Lakewood of Strathmore in conjunction with Heckya.ca was announced for the Lakewood Roadshow series.
Director and Founder of Heckya.ca Scott Silva explains that five times this year they will be illuminating the skies, “Everything from concerts, Fright Night, Celebration of Lights, New Year's Eve, the whole bit. If we keep going at this pace, we might even be able to add one more.”
“The idea came from back in July 2020 when Covid really hit, when Heckya and GlobalFest decided to do ‘Fire on the Lake’ in Lakewood and that was meant to be kind of a launching pad for what would eventually become the roadshow. Of course, we all had a little bit of a break in the last two years where everybody was a little separated but now that we've come back together in full force, we really wanted to launch this series.”
GlobalFest is one of the organizations that is bringing the fireworks themselves to town and the other company involved will be The Fireworks Factory that is based out of Wheatland County. “We want to work and support local as well.”
“We are going to be getting some of our materials and supply from them (Fireworks Factory), but really it all comes down to GlobalFest. They are going to be using their experience, their knowledge, tying everything together with the pyro musicals. We actually are doing some pyrotechnics for the concerts as well on top of fireworks.”
Silva said that what they wanted to do was bring a level of focus and another level of entertainment to these shows and their events, “Really attracting Calgary and other markets to show them all that we have out here in Strathmore and Wheatland County.”
The majority of the funding comes from the Ag Society and as Silvia said, “We are going to start to work on some grants and see if we can put together some grants to build up these shows.”
The goal year by year is to increase the scale and size of these events, “That's really because of sponsors here in our community including The Lakewood sponsorship as well, and then obviously Heckya working alongside GlobalFest and the Ag Society. We've set a benchmark and now we want to keep growing and keep putting on amazing shows.”
There are still sponsorship opportunities and Silva said that he recommends talking with Meagan Miller or Kate Dubois at the Ag Society because they are the ones putting the sponsorship packages together.
“I do know that there have been some sponsorship or title sponsorships for some of these fireworks shows coming up that have already been purchased, but I think there are still two or three available.”
The five shows planned for 2023 include the Cowboy Town concert in June, Friday night to kick off the Stampede in August, Fright Night in October, Celebration of Lights in November and then New Year's Eve in December, “So we're going to see a little bit of fireworks every few months.”
“Everything will be at the Ag grounds, which is great because there it's a great space for family, friends and everybody to come together.”
2023 Fireworks Calendar for the Lakewood Roadshow SeriesSend your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@strathmorenow.com
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