Saskatonians gather for Canada Day festivities by the riverbank

Thousands descended upon Saskatoon’s River Landing to ring in Canada Day’s 156th year. Saskatonians gathered to take in the sights and sounds of various activities.

The Saskatoon Canada Day director said there’s so much entertainment packed into this day.

“We have cultural groups performing from noon right through till 9:30 p.m.,” said Shad Ali. “We’ll have complimentary bannock, we’ll have our citizenship ceremony, and after which, we’ll have Canada cake. So, I mean, there’s plenty to do.”

Activities on the other side of the river in Rotary Park, there are bouncy castles, rides, face-painting, pop-up performers and so much more.

Ali said the turnout is great this year where they are expecting somewhere between 42,000-47,000 people attend the festivities in Saskatoon.

“As a result, we’ve grown the site and that’s why we expanded over to include Rotary Park this year,” he said. “We’ve added some more food vendors and merchandise vendors, so people shouldn’t have to line up quite as long in order to get their food and beverages and those kinds of things.”

For eight years, Paul Trujillo and his two sons, Martin and Camilo celebrated Canada Day.

“Every single year, we enjoy the types of food that we have here and entertainment,” said Paul. “We are really happy to be here, and we feel blessed … it’s really an amazing experience here in Canada especially here in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.”

Local resident Pat McKey says Canada Day is one of his favourite days of the year.

“It’s always hot. It’s the kickoff to summer,” he said. “Everyone is in a good mood. There’s music, there’s food trucks (and) everyone is wearing red. It’s just a fun day.”

From Indigenous to the Ukrainian community, various cultural activities ran throughout the day. The day ends with fireworks at 10:30 which will be fired from the Broadway Bridge.

3:47 Gearing up for Canada Day celebrations in Saskatoon