Light show, party, highlight 150th kickoff

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This article was published 11/12/2019 (2325 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba 150’s kickoff celebration will be illuminating, literally.

The event, called Illuminate 150, will take place on Saturday at the Manitoba legislature grounds from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

To celebrate, the legislature will be covered with 300,000 LED bulbs. At 5:35 p.m., Manitobans can watch the building light up. Ralph Wild, a 102-year-old Second World War veteran, and Gianna Eusebio, the 10-year-old current champion child for the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba, will flip a switch to light the property.

Afterwards, there will be a five-minute fireworks show, followed by an aerial acrobatic snowmobile show performed by four X Games athletes.

A DJ will play music on the grounds starting at 3 p.m. Families can try snow tubing and a snowshoe obstacle course. There will be an inflatable slide, games from Festival du Voyageur and a scavenger hunt in the legislature.

The Grey Cup will make an appearance in the afternoon. Mascots from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Valour FC and the Winnipeg Goldeyes will also be in attendance.

Other pieces of Manitoba are worked in to Illuminate 150. There will be installations from Lights of the North, including a moose, a beluga whale, a Manitoba 150 sign, and swings and seesaws lit up in neon colours.

Four classic warming huts originally seen at The Forks have been moved to the legislature grounds. The Weathermen, Hygge Hut, Hug Mug and Golden Bison will be available to shelter cold Manitobans from the weather. The warming huts had been slated to be at the legislature for a while; the uncertainty over whether there will be a skating trail at The Forks this year did not play a factor in their move.

The Forks held its annual Warming Huts Art + Architecture Competition and will have new warming huts to display regardless of the condition of the skating trail.

“We’re not chipping into their cache of the warming huts. They’re still moving full speed ahead with that,” said Aimee Rice, director of communications of the Manitoba 150 host committee.

Rice said the committee has planned for 3,000 people to attend Illuminate 150.

“We know it’s cold, but we also know Manitobans will be super resilient and sort of immune to the cold, so we really hope that people will still come,” Rice said.

There will be fire pits, free coffee and hot chocolate, and the first 1,500 Manitobans at the event will get free Manitoba 150 gloves. Food trucks and merch shops will also be around.

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca