Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Newburgh’s Factory Street will be bustling with winter activities on Feb. 18 as the Newburgh Fire Fighters host the long-awaited 28th annual Canal Bash.
Absent for the last two winters due to COVID-19, this year’s event figures to be all the more eagerly anticipated. Though it had to be shelved, there was never any risk of losing the tradition altogether.
“This is something that the community really likes and the firemen really enjoy keeping it going,” said Derek Godfrey, who returns to help organize the event that was started 30 years ago by Rick Doyle. “I don’t think this will ever go away.”
Central to the bash is the pond hockey tournament, featuring U7 and U9 teams.
“The response to the hockey tournament is going quite well. It sounds like we’re going to have quite a few teams for the U7 and U9 so that’s going to be great,” said Godfrey.
Teams can still join the tournament by contacting Jeff Thompson at JThompson@StoneMills.ca.
All the festival’s favourite attractions are set to return as well including breakfast at the Newburgh Hall from 8 a.m. to noon in support of the Newburgh Minor Softball Association, skating all day on the canal, free wagon rides from 3-6:30 p.m., a bonfire at dusk and capping it all off with fireworks at 7 p.m. All-you-can eat chili, hot dogs, coffee and hot chocolate will be available for $5 for kids, $10 for adults or $20 for a family. Canal tails and Firefighter’s Fries will also be available for purchase.
Were it not for the interruption the last two years, this year would have marked the 30th anniversary. With that in mind Godfrey says they’ll plan to keep the schedule the same for 2023, but there is already talk of going even bigger to mark the big 3-0 in 2025. In the meantime, the fact that the event is returning after the hiatus is more than enough reason to celebrate.
Though a winter blast did arrive to the area this week, for the most part it has been a mild winter. Godfrey says the canal itself has only been frozen enough for skating a handful of days, and even then it’s never lasted long. If Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate there’s always the option for road hockey, but by in large the winter weather has shown up when needed for the last three decades.
“Since we’ve made it Family Day weekend, we’ve actually never had a problem with the weather,” said Godfrey. “It’s done the same thing it’s doing now where it makes us afraid that there’s not going to be any ice and we can’t make extra skating places, but hopefully this snow that’s coming is going to stay and we can get at making a few extra rinks.”
For the latest updates check The Newburgh Canal Bash Facebook page.