50TH ANNIVERSARY
Coal Dust Days begins today in New Waterford
Annual flower show set for Tuesday.
Coal Dust Days kicks off in the community today with a salute to the coal miners.
“Our festival theme this year is coal miners,” said Joey Lever, co-ordinator of Coal Dust Days. “It’s dedicated to all coal miners past and present in memory of the 100th anniversary of the No. 12 mine explosion.”
Coal Dust Days begins today and continues until July 23.
Three new events are part of the 34th edition of Coal Dust Days including a parking lot party Sunday at Collierylands Park from 6-9 p.m. It will begin following the parade and will feature food trucks and music.
The parade route has been changed this year to end at the park.
“The park is a great place to celebrate because the No. 12 monument is there,” said Lever. “We want to make this all about the coal miners as much as we can this year.”
Another new event is a family hypnotist night with Jokers Wild on Wednesday at the New Waterford fire hall from 7-9:30 p.m.
As well a family square dance has been added to festivities and will take place Saturday, July 22 with Gillian Head at the French Club from 7-10 p.m. The square dance is open to all ages.
Traditional Coal Dust Days events are still on the schedule including the tavern tour on July 22 and Plummer Avenue Day on July 20 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
The annual Plummer Avenue Day block party draws the biggest crowd, according to Lever.
“You can see 2,000 people
walk the street during the day.” The Coal Dust Days Motorcycle
Show & Shine will be held Thursday at the New Waterford Legion beginning at noon.
“This is the third year for it, it has been growing every year.”
Coal Dust Days chair Jim MacKinnon said everything is falling into place for the festivities and they hope everyone will come out and have a great time. He said people call from as far as the United States to find out the dates of the festival and plan their vacation.
“They’ve been calling since April to get the dates.”
MacKinnon said although he enjoys all the festival events, he admits his favourite is Plummer Avenue Day.
“You’re meeting a lot of people over the one day, people you haven’t seen in a long time.”