After three very full days of partying culminating on Canada Day, will Peterborough be willing embrace a hangover of historical proportions?
That’s certainly the hope of Peterborough Museum and Archives administrator Jon Oldham who, with his colleagues at a number of local heritage-related facilities and organizations, has helped organize Heritage Day, an ambitious celebration of all things heritage for Sunday, July 2nd atop Armour Hill and near the Liftlock Visitors’ Centre.
Sponsored by Shaw Direct Satellite TV, the full-day event is the final piece of the Celebrate At Home puzzle — now a four-day celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday featuring a number of music performances, visual art displays, and children’s activities in downtown Peterborough, as well as the annual Peterborough Canada Day Parade and the Multicultural Canada Day event in Del Crary Park.
Heritage Day begins at 10 a.m. with a free pancake breakfast provided by the East Peterborough Lions Club.
Until 4 p.m., crafts, games, activities and displays will abound with military re-enactments by members of the drill teams of Norwood District and East Northumberland high schools. As well, representatives of Lang Pioneer Village and Hutchison House, dressed in period costumes, will interact with the public.
And, in keeping with the decidedly musical theme of the entire Celebrate At Home celebration, there will be live performances by Mayhemingways, Dan Fewings, Steafan and Saskia, and The Paddling Puppeteers — Glen Caradus and Phil Stephenson.
In addition, there will be horse-drawn wagon rides provided by High View Farm Commercial Horses, as well as guided tours in a Voyageur canoe and free cruises to the top of the Peterborough Liftlock for a unique view of Peterborough — courtesy of The Canadian Canoe Museum and Liftlock Cruise Lines.
The museum will also be opening its entire collection storage area to the public.
“It’s an opportunity to share all of our historical artifacts,” Oldham says, “instead of just the one per cent that is on display at any given time.”
And on July 1st, the museum will open a new exhibition titled “Made In Canada — Really!”
Continuing until October 1st, the museum-produced exhibition will feature dozens of artifacts that were made in Canada. Oldham explains:
“There are going to be artifacts that nobody is going to be surprised that are there, from GE and Quaker Oats, but there’s a lot of industries that operated in Peterborough that produced items that we might recognize but didn’t realize were made in Canada let alone in Peterborough. People will learn a few things. You always learn something new at the museum.”
Oldham is excited over the prospect of the day’s activities bringing a number of first-time visitors to the museum, which, along with Lang Pioneer Village, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year.
“We’re not tourists in our own town as often as we’d like to be until family and friends come visit,” he says.
Free parking will be available at King George Public School and the Armour Hill Parking Lot (at the top of Armour Hill). To make travel between the two sites less stressful, a free shuttle bus service will operate between the museum, the Liftlock Visitors’ Centre and King George Public School at Armour Road and Hunter Street East.
All the Canada 150 celebrations over four days in Peterborough are free. Some events are subject to last-minute changes, and other events are weather dependent. For more information and for last-minute updates on Peterborough’s Canada 150th celebration schedule, visit www.peterborough.ca/ptbo150, www.facebook.com/PTBO150, or @Ptbo150, and search for the hashtag #Ptbo150 on social media.
