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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION
Living flag event draws huge crowd to legislative grounds
An aerial view of the Living Flag event held this morning at the legislative grounds. (RON GILFILLAN)
Winnipeg's living flag was even larger than last year, organizers say.
But whether it was larger than competing cities remains to be seen.
"It was truly amazing to see such community pride today," said Stefano Grande, executive director of the Downtown BIZ, which organized the event. "Our flag was made up of people from all walks of life — a real multicultural mosaic and snapshot truly representative of our downtown community. Not only did our living flag look bigger than last year, we showed just how much civic pride and love we have for our city."
Leading up to the event, Langley, B.C. threw down the gauntlet, challenging the Downtown BIZ in the goal of creating Canada’s largest living flag. The official results of this challenge will be released in the next few days and Canada will know if Langley or Winnipeg clinched the top spot. Victoria and Calgary also formed visually dynamic living flags.
Last year, Winnipeg drew 3,400 participants.
This year, Winnipeg participants began filling the site at 9:30 a.m. to take in musical performances by Brenlee Martin and Enjoy Your Pumas and a flyover by a Hercules aircraft, and to claim their red and white T-shirts for the group flag photo.
"It's about being part of the community, taking part," said Mar Manimtim, who came out to the event with his girlfriend.
After the picture, Martin lead the crowd in singing O Canada — in English and French — before people started to disperse.
History
Updated on Sunday, July 1, 2012 at 11:45 AM CDT: updated from the event
1:01 PM: added photo
1:30 PM: updated with event's conclusion
7:01 PM: rewrite and update
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