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Theodore Mate certainly summed up the day, and weekend – and perhaps even this city at large – when he arrived at the CHEO Teddy Bear Picnic at the Governor General’s on Saturday morning, his eyes as wide as the day held promise.
Still a fistful of months shy of his third birthday, Theodore sprinted across the manicured lawn of Rideau Hall, ahead of his mother and father, and shouted out to no one and everyone: “We’re here! We’re here!”
And he was, as were we all, at perhaps the busiest weekend of Ottawa’s hectic summer social calendar, where festivals and races and beach events piled up like so many blind trapeze artists on a safety net.
Why, not since the days of log-rolling on the Ottawa River, the Stony Monday riots, and public executions at the old Nicholas Street jail have Ottawans had so much entertainment to choose from, from dragon boats to terrifying clowns and mascots, from blazing rainbows of aboriginal headdresses to baby back ribs sizzling on a hot grill and cool jazz on a soft evening’s blanket.
For make no mistake: we have reached the Second Golden Age of Stuff to Do in Ottawa.
The early-risers and their parents were perhaps the first to take advantage of this dense schedule of fun, arriving at Rideau Hall at 8 a.m. for the “celebrity” breakfast (air quotes are mine, but seriously, news media executives are not “celebrities” at functions geared to four-year-olds – large furry animals from TV shows are). But whatever; regardless of who was manning the grill, everyone had their fill of pancakes and juice.
And besides, they came for the merry-go-round, the petting zoo and the bouncy stuff, and particularly for the 401 B*A*S*H (Bear Ambulatory Surgical Hospital), where wounded unicorns, bears knocked senseless and stuffing-less, one-eyed dalmatians and hypochondriac giraffes (you know who you are) could all get a little attention and TLC.
Kieran Murphy, 5, and his giraffe, Giraffe, at the CHEO Teddy Bear pinic at Rideau Hall on Saturday.
Ava Russell, 3, tried to high-five a goat, and Kieran Murphy, the five-year-old Batman, decided that Giraffe maybe didn’t need a bandaid after all. Maybe just a checkup.
Three-year-old Tatum Daniel, meanwhile, arrived with her turquoise leopard, Leona, in tow. Leona’s tail had been almost completely removed – all eyes looked sternly at the family chihuahua that had only been adopted days before the “accident.” Tatum, however, finished the job on the way to the picnic, perhaps not wanting to be ridiculed by medics for showing up with an only partially torn tail.
Violet Lowe, 4-1/2, explained how Blue Bear broke his leg. “I was playing with him and I fell,” she said, showing in excruciating detail how Blue’s legs were completely splayed in the incident. Even Mikhail Baryshnikov, one imagines, couldn’t have survived such a manoeuvre, and yet, Violet added, Blue did not cry.
Blue was attended to by 15-year-old volunteer “medic” Dahlia Migahed, who expected to cast as many as 20 animals yesterday, if her past two years’ experience were any indication.
Share your photos from any of the City’s eight festivals here.
Elsewhere, kids had their stuffed animals’ teeth checked, vaccinations administered, with many youngsters winding their morning down by throwing a shaving-cream pie in the face of willing volunteers, or spinning the wheel of bears, or just staring, perplexed, at their reflections in the tuba of the Maple Leaf Brass Band. It was that perfect kind of day.
Many older youngsters congregated Saturday at Mooney’s Bay, aka Tent City, where Dragon Boat teams too numerous to mention individually — although the Ottawa Fertility Centre Seamen was by far the best moniker I came across, so to speak — gathered to compete in friendly rivalries, each ever-aware that their deeds this weekend were helping good causes.
And so as the red-shirted Bureaucrats on Board: Diplomatic Dragons – one of two teams from Foreign Affairs – set out for a morning race, one of their paddlers reminding the squad: “It’s not about having fun. It’s about winning and losing. I don’t care about our time; but we have to beat these guys.”
Members of Bureaucrats on Board: Diplomatic Dragons prepare to race at the Dragon Boat Festival at Mooney’s Bay on Saturday.
A sea of point-and-shoot cameras and iPhones were trained on the passing boats, meanwhile, as Tunney’s Torpedo, The Krakens, Hannah’s Horde, Ready Oar Not and others raced by, their drums beating.
After a pair of wins, the Soldiers of Fitness women’s team was declared winner of the recreational Women’s Cup, and team member Gina Gargaro credited their year-round training program.
“One would almost say it’s a cult,” she almost said.
“But it’s about being part of the community,” she added, “and raising funds for a good cause and bringing everyone together. Dragon Boat is the cherry on top that validates the perseverance and sense of community,with people of all ages and backgrounds coming together for a common goal; to raise funds and do something great.”
A short walk north, at Vincent Massey Park, a different Tent City vied for Ottawans’ attention, as the Summer Solstice Aboriginal Festival continued its weekend-long celebration of Saturday’s National Aboriginal Day.
Here, the Northern Cree host drummers made the Dragon Boat drummers sound effete, while scores of aboriginal people donned bright and colourful traditional costumes and competed in a pow wow that featured men’s and women’s fancy and traditional dances, as well as women’s jingle dress, prairie chicken, smoke and grass dances.
A youngster in traditional regalia wanders about at the Summer Solstice Aboriginal Festival at Vincent Massey Park on Saturday.
Ten-year-old Francesca Pheasant has been dancing competitively since she was three. My grandmother danced and my father danced, and now I dance,” she said. “It’s our way.”
Lee Hannigan, with his sons Vaughn and Kamiakin, stressed that ceremonies such as Saturday’s are of great importance.
“We come here together as a group,” he said, “to celebrate our people’s way of life. And we dance for people, and that’s what brings us together today.”
Near the main outdoor arena where Saturday’s pow wow took place, other tents housed the aboriginal marketplace that helps support such an event: the jewelry and moccasins, herbs and dream catchers, quilts and traditional costumes and t-shirts, as well as attractions such as pony rides, bungee trampolines, displays of canoe-building and tipis and a main stage featuring music, theatre, lanterns, puppets and fashion shows.
Culture of another type was being preserved Saturday at Centre Richelieu in Vanier, where 4,000 visitors were expected to celebrate next Tuesday’s St-Jean Baptiste Day.
According to event vice-president Hélène Berthelet, the festival is in its seventh year, following an almost decade-long hiatus.
“People in the community wanted to revive the festival for the French-speaking people around Ottawa.”
An early event yesterday, called Idol St-Jean, saw 15 high school students compete in musical performances, with judges choosing six finalists to compete again later in the day, and a winner chose by 8 p.m. Additionally, there were plenty of children’s games and activities, a beer and wine tent, musical performances and tents (again) set up to feature different French-Canadian foods.
Parents Josée Grieken and Chantal Cardona watched as their children, faces painted, triend to hammer rubber frogs into plastic pails. Grieken held a small Quebec flag.
“We had to come,” said Cardona. “We’re Franco-Ontarian, so we had to come and party. “This is a big day for my French heritage,” she added. “Vive le Québéc
libre.”
Festival president Michel Benac admitted there was concern about competition from other festivals Saturday, but added that they had little option: “St-Jean Baptiste Day is June 24,” he said, “and in Ontario it’s not a statutory holiday, so celebrating it on the 24th is very difficult. So we always celebrate it on the Saturday closest to the 24th.
“This year, that coincides with a lot of other things. But you know what? There are a lot of proud Franco-Ontarians here in Ottawa that are going to want to celebrate their proud culture.”
Josee Grieken and Chantal Cardona wave Quebec’s flag at Saturday’s Festival de la St-Jean, at Centre Richelieu in Vanier.
查看原文...
Still a fistful of months shy of his third birthday, Theodore sprinted across the manicured lawn of Rideau Hall, ahead of his mother and father, and shouted out to no one and everyone: “We’re here! We’re here!”
And he was, as were we all, at perhaps the busiest weekend of Ottawa’s hectic summer social calendar, where festivals and races and beach events piled up like so many blind trapeze artists on a safety net.
Why, not since the days of log-rolling on the Ottawa River, the Stony Monday riots, and public executions at the old Nicholas Street jail have Ottawans had so much entertainment to choose from, from dragon boats to terrifying clowns and mascots, from blazing rainbows of aboriginal headdresses to baby back ribs sizzling on a hot grill and cool jazz on a soft evening’s blanket.
For make no mistake: we have reached the Second Golden Age of Stuff to Do in Ottawa.
The early-risers and their parents were perhaps the first to take advantage of this dense schedule of fun, arriving at Rideau Hall at 8 a.m. for the “celebrity” breakfast (air quotes are mine, but seriously, news media executives are not “celebrities” at functions geared to four-year-olds – large furry animals from TV shows are). But whatever; regardless of who was manning the grill, everyone had their fill of pancakes and juice.
And besides, they came for the merry-go-round, the petting zoo and the bouncy stuff, and particularly for the 401 B*A*S*H (Bear Ambulatory Surgical Hospital), where wounded unicorns, bears knocked senseless and stuffing-less, one-eyed dalmatians and hypochondriac giraffes (you know who you are) could all get a little attention and TLC.
Kieran Murphy, 5, and his giraffe, Giraffe, at the CHEO Teddy Bear pinic at Rideau Hall on Saturday.
Ava Russell, 3, tried to high-five a goat, and Kieran Murphy, the five-year-old Batman, decided that Giraffe maybe didn’t need a bandaid after all. Maybe just a checkup.
Three-year-old Tatum Daniel, meanwhile, arrived with her turquoise leopard, Leona, in tow. Leona’s tail had been almost completely removed – all eyes looked sternly at the family chihuahua that had only been adopted days before the “accident.” Tatum, however, finished the job on the way to the picnic, perhaps not wanting to be ridiculed by medics for showing up with an only partially torn tail.
Violet Lowe, 4-1/2, explained how Blue Bear broke his leg. “I was playing with him and I fell,” she said, showing in excruciating detail how Blue’s legs were completely splayed in the incident. Even Mikhail Baryshnikov, one imagines, couldn’t have survived such a manoeuvre, and yet, Violet added, Blue did not cry.
Blue was attended to by 15-year-old volunteer “medic” Dahlia Migahed, who expected to cast as many as 20 animals yesterday, if her past two years’ experience were any indication.
Share your photos from any of the City’s eight festivals here.
Elsewhere, kids had their stuffed animals’ teeth checked, vaccinations administered, with many youngsters winding their morning down by throwing a shaving-cream pie in the face of willing volunteers, or spinning the wheel of bears, or just staring, perplexed, at their reflections in the tuba of the Maple Leaf Brass Band. It was that perfect kind of day.
Many older youngsters congregated Saturday at Mooney’s Bay, aka Tent City, where Dragon Boat teams too numerous to mention individually — although the Ottawa Fertility Centre Seamen was by far the best moniker I came across, so to speak — gathered to compete in friendly rivalries, each ever-aware that their deeds this weekend were helping good causes.
And so as the red-shirted Bureaucrats on Board: Diplomatic Dragons – one of two teams from Foreign Affairs – set out for a morning race, one of their paddlers reminding the squad: “It’s not about having fun. It’s about winning and losing. I don’t care about our time; but we have to beat these guys.”
Members of Bureaucrats on Board: Diplomatic Dragons prepare to race at the Dragon Boat Festival at Mooney’s Bay on Saturday.
A sea of point-and-shoot cameras and iPhones were trained on the passing boats, meanwhile, as Tunney’s Torpedo, The Krakens, Hannah’s Horde, Ready Oar Not and others raced by, their drums beating.
After a pair of wins, the Soldiers of Fitness women’s team was declared winner of the recreational Women’s Cup, and team member Gina Gargaro credited their year-round training program.
“One would almost say it’s a cult,” she almost said.
“But it’s about being part of the community,” she added, “and raising funds for a good cause and bringing everyone together. Dragon Boat is the cherry on top that validates the perseverance and sense of community,with people of all ages and backgrounds coming together for a common goal; to raise funds and do something great.”
A short walk north, at Vincent Massey Park, a different Tent City vied for Ottawans’ attention, as the Summer Solstice Aboriginal Festival continued its weekend-long celebration of Saturday’s National Aboriginal Day.
Here, the Northern Cree host drummers made the Dragon Boat drummers sound effete, while scores of aboriginal people donned bright and colourful traditional costumes and competed in a pow wow that featured men’s and women’s fancy and traditional dances, as well as women’s jingle dress, prairie chicken, smoke and grass dances.
A youngster in traditional regalia wanders about at the Summer Solstice Aboriginal Festival at Vincent Massey Park on Saturday.
Ten-year-old Francesca Pheasant has been dancing competitively since she was three. My grandmother danced and my father danced, and now I dance,” she said. “It’s our way.”
Lee Hannigan, with his sons Vaughn and Kamiakin, stressed that ceremonies such as Saturday’s are of great importance.
“We come here together as a group,” he said, “to celebrate our people’s way of life. And we dance for people, and that’s what brings us together today.”
Near the main outdoor arena where Saturday’s pow wow took place, other tents housed the aboriginal marketplace that helps support such an event: the jewelry and moccasins, herbs and dream catchers, quilts and traditional costumes and t-shirts, as well as attractions such as pony rides, bungee trampolines, displays of canoe-building and tipis and a main stage featuring music, theatre, lanterns, puppets and fashion shows.
Culture of another type was being preserved Saturday at Centre Richelieu in Vanier, where 4,000 visitors were expected to celebrate next Tuesday’s St-Jean Baptiste Day.
According to event vice-president Hélène Berthelet, the festival is in its seventh year, following an almost decade-long hiatus.
“People in the community wanted to revive the festival for the French-speaking people around Ottawa.”
An early event yesterday, called Idol St-Jean, saw 15 high school students compete in musical performances, with judges choosing six finalists to compete again later in the day, and a winner chose by 8 p.m. Additionally, there were plenty of children’s games and activities, a beer and wine tent, musical performances and tents (again) set up to feature different French-Canadian foods.
Parents Josée Grieken and Chantal Cardona watched as their children, faces painted, triend to hammer rubber frogs into plastic pails. Grieken held a small Quebec flag.
“We had to come,” said Cardona. “We’re Franco-Ontarian, so we had to come and party. “This is a big day for my French heritage,” she added. “Vive le Québéc
libre.”
Festival president Michel Benac admitted there was concern about competition from other festivals Saturday, but added that they had little option: “St-Jean Baptiste Day is June 24,” he said, “and in Ontario it’s not a statutory holiday, so celebrating it on the 24th is very difficult. So we always celebrate it on the Saturday closest to the 24th.
“This year, that coincides with a lot of other things. But you know what? There are a lot of proud Franco-Ontarians here in Ottawa that are going to want to celebrate their proud culture.”
Josee Grieken and Chantal Cardona wave Quebec’s flag at Saturday’s Festival de la St-Jean, at Centre Richelieu in Vanier.
查看原文...
