Snow Birds; air show to come to Castlegar?
By Kyra Hoggan
It’s been 16 years since Castlegar’s last air show, but the wait for another one may be almost over.
City councillor Kevin Chernoff said the city is trying to lure the Snow Birds – Canada’s elite military air acrobats – as a warm-up to an air show that will hopefully take place in 2017.
“We’re hoping to hear back form them in the next couple of weeks,” Chernoff said, adding they are tentatively looking at Aug. 4, 2016 for the Snow Bird fly-over. “They’ll make a few passes and a lot of noise – It doesn’t last very long, but it’s really neat. You can bet it’ll be heard all through the valley.”
City representatives will be attending an upcoming air show convention in Abbotsford to pitch the city as an excellent host site.
“The benefit to us is, it raises awareness of our airport and promotes tourism – we’d be drawing from a really large area, and it equates to full hotel rooms, busy grocery stores, and a boost in local business.”
Airport manager and fire chief Gerry Rempel said the last air show in town, called Thunder 2000, was a wild success.
“I think we sold all 5,000 tickets, and had several thousand other people show up. If you count the people watching from along the mountainsides, like at Verigin’s Tomb, there were probably more than 10,000 people.”
“Ït was a very big deal – almost a whole day event,” Rempel added. “It cost a lot, but it brought a lot of people in, and a lot of local companies and businesses donated to help make it happen.”
Stayed tuned to the Source for more details about the fly-over and air show as more become available.
