A month after a flood damaged homes and devastated businesses Creekers are coming together to celebrate their community’s spirit and culture in fun-filled three-day family festival.
The 55th annual Bragg Creek Days will run from July 19 to 21.
“We’re throwing a great party and you better have a good excuse if you miss it,” said Peter Faloon, chair of the organizing team. “We’re going to have fun and we’re going to celebrate our community.”
According to the Bragg Creek Community Association, more than 8,000 meals were served to volunteers and residents during the initial 11 days the response centre was open full-time at the Bragg Creek Community Centre to provide support to flood affected families and businesses.
Many of the same community volunteers who put in countless hours at the response centre have been hard at work to ensure Bragg Creek Days are a huge success according to Faloon.
“We never had a single conversation about cancelling Bragg Creek Days,” he said. “Bragg Creek Community Centre staff and community champions are on a mission to host and organize the event.”
Bragg Creek Days typically attracts up to 600 people on the action-packed Saturday, said Faloon, who speculated attendance could double if volunteers from outside the hamlet return to celebrate with the community.
Faloon said volunteers would be able to sign one of the response centre banners during Bragg Creek Days, which will then be hung inside the community centre for one year to acknowledge their efforts.
“We hope the volunteers from outside of Bragg Creek come back to our community for Bragg Creek Days,” said Faloon. “We are trying really hard to have fun and celebrate our community as opposed to focusing on the flood.
“Our unofficial motto is ‘Now that was Fun’, and that is what we want people to say when they leave the festivities.”
The festival kicks off July 19 with a Daisy Dukes and Cowboy Boots family dance at the Bragg Creek Community Centre at 6:30 p.m.
On July 20, the day will begin at 7:30 a.m. with a pancake breakfast hosted by the Redwood Meadows Firefighters’ Association, who will donate all money raised to Bragg Creek Flood Relief.
The popular parade starts at 10:30 a.m. with one of Bragg Creek’s esteemed founding families, the Merryfield family, acting as the parade marshals.
“The parade will include floats, drummers and pipers,” said Faloon. “New this year will be two RCMP officers in full dress on horses.”
Following the parade, the afternoon festivities include carnival games, bouncy houses, delicious food, and a music festival and beer garden located on the grounds of the Bragg Creek Community Centre.
“As a special treat, professional local chef Giuseppe Piruzza will cook gourmet food at our barbecue,” said Faloon.
The festival wraps up July 21 with the annual Bragg Creek Community Church service at the community centre.
Easter Seals Camp Horizon director of operations Anna Garcia said flood conditions have also affected her local organization’s major fundraiser, the Banded Peak Challenge. Organizers of the challenge, to be held July 20, were forced to come up with a new route in West Bragg Creek due to the flood damaging local roads.
On July 19, from 6-8 p.m., participants can do an advance check of the new route in at the community centre.
“This has created a great opportunity to work with Bragg Creek Days organizers and bring our event into the community,” said Garcia.
