Red River EX-citement
Lumberjack show, midway, mini-doughnuts...
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/06/2012 (5056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
IS there a truer sign of summer’s arrival than the plaintive wail of the Polar Express operator asking riders, “Do you wanna go faster?”
The sweet smell of mini-doughnuts and various meats on a stick would certainly warrant some consideration but one thing is sure — few things elicit unbridled enthusiasm among kids of all ages more than the annual Red River Ex, which opened Friday.
More than 230,000 people walked through the turnstiles last year, one of the best attended in the Ex’s 63-year history, but that number could easily be surpassed if the weather is hot and sunny and the new attractions are as popular as hoped.
One of the first-timers is the Timberworks Lumberjack Show, a Wisconsin-based troupe that throws axes, climbs trees, chainsaws logs and rolls on them in a 5,000-gallon tank.
If those events sound contrived, they’re not. Dave Weatherhead, Timberland’s owner, said they came about from the day-to-day work of lumberjacks in the 1800s.
“They’d be bragging to each other (about) who could chop logs faster or who could climb faster or saw faster and the only way to find out who was the best was to have a competition,” he said.
Some lumberjacks can literally log-roll — a skill developed as logs were being transported down the river — for hours, he said.
“It’s harder with two people on there trying to knock each other off. You can change direction of the log, kick water at them or spit tobacco juice at them. The last guy on the log wins and the first guy in the water loses,” he said.
Other new attractions at this year’s Ex include the Flying Fools High Dive Show, the EXtreme Highland Games Competition (Sunday) and the Kids’ Pedal Tractor Pull, which invites four- to 12-year-olds to take part in daily competitions on a rather modest scale.
The musical talent includes Tom Cochrane (Monday), The Sheepdogs (Tuesday), Carly Rae Jepsen (June 23), and The Backyardigans (June 24).
The Ex runs until June 24.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
