After a year off due to the pandemic, it’s back.
Squamish Days Loggers Sports will be returning this year for a one-day event on Sept. 18 at the Al McIntosh Loggers Sports Grounds, starting at 1:30 p.m.People can sign up to compete in the festival up until Aug. 27.
For organizer Jacqulin McNicol, it’s been a long time coming.“It feels amazing. We have long-term volunteers who we haven’t been seeing, especially last year. Essentially it’s a family down there,” said McNicol.
“We see the same people and we see them because we’re all working towards the same goal. So not having that last year was tough.”When putting together the grounds crew and organizing team for this year, they realized that they didn’t have the contacts for many people.
The crew has been so dedicated that everyone has just simply shown up at the same time every year for the last 64 or so years.“Now that people are coming down on a regular basis, it’s better than a reunion,” she said.
The multi-day event is being compressed into a single day this time, as restrictions prevented organizers from having the same amount of time to plan.Tickets will be sold online to ensure that the event complies with COVID capacity limits.
The Saturday event will kick off with a pancake breakfast at the Chieftain Centre from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.For those looking for more food, the famed Rotary beef barbecue will be accessible via online tickets as well.
McNicol said they’ll be bringing back many of the old favourite events like the choker race, birling, tree climbing, double buck, single buck, Jill and Jill hand bucking, butcher block, underhand chop and axe throw.The only events being taken out are the standing chop block, which has been replaced by a two-man butcher block, and the tree-topping, she said.
Organizers are working to get the famous tree-falling finale ready, but that’s not a guarantee, due to time constraints, she said.Just about everything else should be returning.
Personally, she said she’s looking forward to the choker race and the obstacle pole events.“I mean they’re phenomenal. I mean the obstacle pole, there’s more ways to disqualify yourself on that event than any other of our events, so it’s always a good one,” she said with a laugh. “To me they’re all unreal.”
Timber training events are happening at the grounds every weekend leading up to the big show, and many people have been enthusiastically partaking, she said.Regarding the much-loved clown routine, McNicol kept that close to her chest.
The competition is also once again open to people from all over the world, though, with pandemic restrictions, it may be harder to have international competitors join in.McNicol said that some loggers sports athletes from the United States have already signed up.
She also said she heard musicians are trying to organize an after party that may take place downtown. Details have yet to be hammered out, though.“It would be an amazing fit. Everyone would leave and go down there and keep the day going,” said McNicol.
“I’m hoping they can get that off the ground.”Keep up to date with what is happening next on the festival website or on Facebook.
