Derek Kaye
Castlegar News
It huffed and it puffed, it even sent a lightning strike, but the weather couldn’t blow the stage tent down. From 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Kinsmen Park in downtown Castlegar on Saturday April 26 was full of citizens. The folks enjoyed their right to assembly, celebration and friendly competition in the annual Castlegar Spring Fling. Close to 30 teams participated in road hockey, the greatest of Canadian sports.
Entertainment ranged from the aggressive rock and roll of teenage band Right Out Of Way to the softer vocals of Spiritwood and Dannika Soukoroff. Roots music made its appearance with the country retro rock band Concrete Harvester and country blues artist, yours truly Derek Jonathan. Nina Amelio performed with Jason Thomas, doing songs from her recent EP including up and coming original pop songs receiving regular airplay on Mountain FM, the Bridge and CBC radio stations. The stage lineup was rounded out by a session of Super Cat studio singers instructed by the talented Nina Amelio in the morning and a team of roaring guitars later in the afternoon driven by a very talented drummer. Super Cat Studios owner Yanive Feiner drove the players conducting the music with his tasty guitar leads and band leadership.
Their were four road hockey rinks constructed with supplies donated by Rona and Mitchell’s this year with a tournament-style round robin with resulting play-offs. The winners of this year’s Castlegar 3 x 3 hockey Stanley Cup were the Hawkeyes, who went undefeated in the adult category. The youth category winners were the Blackhawks. Tournament sponsor Mountain FM finished in the semi-finals, and Josh Hoffman, Mountain FM sports broadcaster had this to say about the tournament day, “The weather could have played a factor but it didn’t, which I think goes to show how much people love the sport of hockey whether it’s on the ice or on the street. There were a lot of happy kids out there and a lot of happy adults when they won the cup. When you get that trophy out there its like kids at Christmas time.”
Spring Fling organizer Peter Laurie had similar feelings on how well the day went. He wishes to thank all the volunteers who are too numerous to mention, but know who they are, for all their contributions that went into making another successful Castlegar Spring Fling. See you next year.