If you are looking for some family-friendly fun this weekend, the annual bridge walk is back.
Steve Proctor with Halifax Harbour Bridges tells our newsroom they wanted to do something that’s a little bigger and better.
“We have wrestling this year for the very first time. We’ve got a bridge smackdown and we’ve got 15 wrestlers that are going to be doing a two-hour show and demonstrating some of their activity to the crowd,” says Proctor.
There are also going to be a variety of interactive activities including the Discovery Centre that explores noise, a passport system for kids and the Stadacona band to name just a few.
“We’ve got the South Shore Summer Festival, which has an Elvis theme to it. There is the annual special, which is the John Alphonse band that starts off by marching across the Macdonald right at 2 p.m.,” adds Proctor.
The event has attracted thousands through the decades.
“There’s been as many as 10,000 people at bridge walks back in the 60’s, it kind of declined through the 70’s, we missed a couple of walks because of the big lift and because of COVID, but this is our third year or fourth year back,” says Proctor.
Double the booths
There will be 25 vendors, more than double the 12 from last year.
Proctor says it will include booths from the French community, Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, Port of Halifax, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, “you name it”.
“You can come and talk to these groups about their projects and what they’re doing in the community,” adds Proctor.
In addition to all of this, they will have an archivist – to preserve old documents.
“If you’ve got an old photograph or an old trinket or something sitting around your basement that you don’t know what to do with, and it’s got a bridge theme to it, bring it into us. We’ll be able to protect that piece of thing that may have been donated from grandpa and you just don’t know what to do with,” says Proctor.
There will also be fire trucks, the fleet of electronic buses, a display explaining what is happening with recoating of the Dartmouth tower, food and drink and more.
Times
The bridge will close at 8 a.m., Sunday for the MacPass Miles Running Race, then closes at 2 p.m., for the walk.
“Just come. Bring your friends. There will be lots to do,” says Proctor.
