Ridgetown is kicking off the Canada Day long weekend with a bang Friday.
The town's celebrations, dubbed East Kent Celebrates, will include fireworks at dusk Friday after a parade down Main St. starting at 6:30pm to celebrate Canada's 151st birthday.
Chair of the Ridgetown BIA Cindy Deveraux says the parade will have a distinctly agricultural flavour.
"We kind of asked for 151 tractors... we were very close if not over that last year," says Devereaux. "The parade route leaves from Cecil St. and heads west on Main St."
Deveraux says the town has activities planned throughout the weekend, too, as they look to build on the success of last year's event celebrating Canada's 150th.
"We're starting off slow," says Devereaux. "Last year we only had the parade and the fireworks and then we had a Saturday night even at the arena -- this year, we've expanded to the daytime of Saturday and more Sunday events... it will grow bigger year after year."
According to Devereaux, the community decided to ramp up its Canada Day celebrations after seeing the success that other towns in the municipality were having with their own summertime events.
"Blenheim has Cherry Fest, Thamesville has Threshing Festival, there's WAMBO in Wallaceburg, and we hadn't had those kinds of activities in a few years," says Devereaux. "We do have the Porches and Verandahs festival in July, but that's a whole different avenue and draws different people."
You can find the full list of this year's East Kent Celebrates events by clicking here: East Kent Celebrates - Explore 2018.
