Canada Day in Mill Woods is a very big deal. Since 1990, except for a two-year break because of the coronavirus pandemic, tens of thousands of people every year have gathered together to celebrate on July 1. They jam into Mill Woods Park at 23 Avenue and 66 Street for a full day of fun. There are food trucks, a beer garden, an artisan fair featuring local artists, hay rides, carnival games, musical performers and dancers. And of course, the Canada Day festivities culminate with a big, and popular, fireworks display.
Canada Day celebrations in Mill Woods, 2012. (Image by Mack Male via flickr.com/mastermaq)
Canada Day fireworks in Mill Woods, 2011. (Image by Brittney Le Blanc via flickr.com/truebritl)
Canada Day celebrations in Mill Woods, 2016. (Image by Mack Male via flickr.com/mastermaq)
Shane Bergdahl came on board as the Mill Woods Canada Day chair in the mid 2000s and was in charge of the show until a few years ago. He says in the early days of the event, while lots of people showed up, the production itself was modest: “We drew over 50,000 people to the park, but the production itself was small. The stage was two by fours on the ground with plywood on top. Some dancers [were] jumping around. The PA system was the speakers from whatever band was performing there. It was a small production… large event.”
When Bergdahl took over as chair, a decision was made to go bigger. “One of the conditions was if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right,” he says. “We fundraised. We brought in a professional stage, a professional sound system. We increased the budget for the bands a little bit. So that the event kept pace with the amount of people coming in there. It’s evolved over the years to what it is now.”
And Bergdahl appreciates the energy that the many newcomers to Canada in southeast Edmonton bring. “Some of them are trying to embrace Canada and try to understand what’s going on,” he says. “They just get wrapped up in the Canada Day event. I went to one event many years ago… it was Canada Day but it was their own event. I think it was an East Indian retiree club and I thought they were more patriotic than many other Canadians were.”
Bergdahl says despite its popularity, most people don’t know all that much about how the Canada Day event comes together:
“The truth be told, most of the residents really don’t understand that Canada Day in southeast Edmonton is put on by the community. They think it’s all the City of Edmonton. The city is involved but all the planning, all the fundraising is done by the community.”
The Canada Day committee is under the Mill Woods Presidents’ Council. Eleven community leagues from Mill Woods, The Meadows and Ellerslie are part of it. “Volunteers come from there, from community leagues and from neighbourhoods,”Bergdahl says. “We also have volunteers from other parts of the city and even outside the city.”
The star of Canada Day in Mill Woods is the fireworks. The display runs for 12 to 14 minutes, but what makes it so special?
Bergdahl says even though the fireworks shells are smaller, the show is more accessible than the main city fireworks display in the river valley. “There is no bad seat,” he says. “When you go to the river valley it depends where you’re sitting. You may see the fireworks, you may not. In Mill Woods, you’re close and everyone can see it.”
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