Crowds have been flocking to Hollinger Park for Stars and Thunder and have been treated to some great entertainment. There is a daily 50/50 draw for an opportunity to win thousands of dollars in cash. Vendors are busy serving the masses with tasty treats.
But as always with major outdoor events, personal hydration is a concern. Sunday stayed mostly clear, but remained steady under 20 degrees Celsius. The Hollinger Park setup includes a few tented areas for respite from the sun, but patrons are completely banned from bringing water onto the festival grounds.
Bottled water is sold at a few of the vendors for $3 dollars each. A price that was set by the city.
"Everybody's selling water and soft drinks for the same price throughout the park," said City of Timmins Director of Tourism and Events Guy Lamarche.
He says issues such as heat stroke are not a big concern.
"We've got lots of hydration fluids. Lots of water. We have plenty in our 'refrig' trucks, so it should not be an issue."
He said there is one major reason why even water isn't permitted in the park.
"The issue with bringing water, or any other beverage or food item from the outside, is security. With what's happening across the world, you never know if what's in that bottle is naphtha gas, or vodka, or gin, and we're not about to start sniffing out bottles. The easy fix to that is, nothing from the outside enters the park, very simple. Not even for us," said Lamarche.
With that said, the volunteers are being looked after on the hydration front.
"Volunteers have water available to them at the check-in area, and they cannot come into the park with that water. So once they're in the park, we have another area for the volunteers to hydrate."
Lamarche said 'every food vendor' is selling water. Some of them include an express line for just beverages. It is a good idea to hydrate yourself well before heading towards the park, as well as visiting your bank, as ATM's on site have a $3.50 service charge to withdraw money.
On site paramedics declined to speak on the record, but did say that heat stroke could become an issue in hot sunny weather.
