Mattawa has a full roster of Canada Day festivities planned

The Town of Mattawa is ready for a full day of activities and festivities this July 1st, and plan to celebrate Canada Day in high style. “Food, music, games, and fireworks,” will be some of the highlights, explained Chelsey Grant, Mattawa’s communications coordinator, but there will be much more happening throughout the day.

As with most Canada Day celebrations, the fireworks take the cake, and this year, Mattawa has a new location for the pyrotechnics. Fireworks will be launched from Mattawa Island, “the perfect spot” for such a display, Grant admitted. The new location allows for prime views from Mattawan and Bissett Streets.

Find your spot by dusk, and reflect on the day’s events, which begin promptly at 9 a.m. when the splash pad in Timmins Park opens for business. Local musicians are also tuning up for 9 a.m. at Explorer’s Point to entertain folks taking in the classic car show, courtesy of Mattawa’s Good Time Cruisers.

Around 11 a.m., Grant mentioned the “mighty machines” begin to arrive just across the street from Explorer’s Point. Anderson Trucking and the Mattawa Fire Department are supplying the machines, and kids are invited to have a look, and even “sit in them and check them out.” The smaller the child, the mightier the machine, so all ages are welcome to revel in the mechanistic display.

Once noon strikes, the face painting begins, and the cupcakes begin to appear. “Something new” is also taking place at lunch, Grant explained, as the town is hosting its first scavenger hunt. Amber Blanchette, who’s working as the town’s program coordinator this summer, helped Grant organize the day’s events, and took the reigns on the scavenger hunt.

See: Mattawa is ready to party! Voyageur Days return

She’s hidden 20 maple leaves about town, and if one can solve the elaborate clues, one will be able to locate those 20 leaves. Once complete the person’s name is entered into a draw to win tickets to Voyageur Days. Hint: the scavenger hunt is designed to showcase Mattawa’s history.

There will also be a vendors’ market at Explorer’s Point, and Grant mentioned Blanchette will have some games going on there throughout the afternoon for the kids. All events are free to attend, and overall, “we have some really fun activities” for the whole family, Grant enthused.

David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.