Lantzville’s Minetown Day event expected to return this summer

After COVID-19 setbacks and delays, a popular family event in Lantzville is returning this year.

Lantzville’s Minetown Day, will be running on Sept. 18 at Huddlestone Park this year and will be a scaled-down version to accommodate COVID-19 safety protocols.

Bob Colclough, chair of the event’s organizing committee, said the Mine Town Day faced numerous setbacks and almost didn’t become a reality this year until recent announcements from the province.

“Because of COVID, we just felt there wasn’t any way we could do it,” said Colclough.

Minetown Day had been an annual event in Lantzville for over 40 years until last year, when it was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colclough said this year’s format will be scaled-down, with fewer big rides. He says big rides draw more lineups and take up space, which is needed in order to accommodate for social distancing and the extra area required.

“We’re basically going to go with everything that’s been done in the past except there will be fewer of some things, particularly the big rides,” he said. “That way too we can space the rides out a little bit differently, a little bit further.”

While some of the rides will be missing from this year’s event, Colclough says many of the classic activities will be there this year, including the climbing wall and bicycle painting event. He also says there may be some new events.

“One of the outfits we have rented or hired for rides in the past, we understand that they actually have over the last year and a half purchased some new rides,” said Colclough. “So there might be some different rides there.”

With COVID-19 cases on the rise, Colclough hopes Minetown Day will be able to move forward as planned. However, he says the final decision will depend on what the province says at the beginning of September.

“We’re just going at this telling everybody that we talked to, food vendors etc that we’re going to do whatever we can do,” he said. “But we have to be prepared that, depending on what happens at the beginning of September, it could get cancelled.”

jwaddell@cheknews.ca

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