New life has been breathed into Sidewalk Days, which has been declared dead at least once this month already.
City council inflicted the first blow (by cutting funding to the Business Improvement District — BID), leading BID to pull it off life support.
A committee of volunteers has breathed new life into the decades-old tradition, assuring all it will go ahead this June 17-19 as planned.
It won’t be easy and it will require a lot of co-operation from downtown merchants, local food vendors, community entertainers and the general public. But left in the hands of a committed group of volunteers, it’s possible this year’s Sidewalk Days will be more memorable than those in the past few years.
We know nothing is forever and things change. We are used to events downsizing and even disappearing. Moose Jaw used to host one of the largest band parades in Canada every May long weekend. But it has gone by the wayside.
The Saskatchewan Air Show was a huge success for several years before the crowds began to decline and the cost became prohibitive.
The Prairie Arts Festival started out very promising, but at last word it has been reduced to every second year and the last festival was nothing like the first one.
Organizing these events takes a lot of money and work and when one element of the two falls off, it can become too difficult to go on.
So one might be wise to get out and enjoy this year’s incarnation of Sidewalk Days. Do what you can to make it a success because its future will depend on how we support it this year.
