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Busy Summer Sizzler weekend for Humboldt

It was another busy year for the Humboldt Summer Sizzler with the weekend being full of activities for everyone. The four day event kicked off with the Sizzler Concert on June 14.
Sizzler kick off
Stephanie Rose and her band made their way from Debden to Humboldt to kick off the 2017 Summer Sizzler with a concert on June 14. Considering the questionable weather, the concert was moved from Civic Park to the Humboldt Curling Rink. photo by Becky Zimmer

It was another busy year for the Humboldt Summer Sizzler with the weekend being full of activities for everyone.

The four day event kicked off with the Sizzler Concert on June 14.

From Debden to Humboldt; Stephanie Rose opens Sizzler

The farm was the perfect backdrop for Stephanie Rose and her budding musical career.

The 22-year-old from Debden released her debut album in 2015 and Humboldt got a taste of her music during the Summer Sizzler Kick Off Concert on June 14.

Weather did have an impact with the show being moved from Civic Park to the Humboldt Uniplex Curling Rink in anticipation of the rain. But Michelle Stevenson with the City of Humboldt says the show went really well.

Those who did come out were treated to the free concert thanks to Humboldt Co-op and the City of Humboldt.

Arts Humboldt also put on the BBQ with proceeds going to Arts Humboldt programs like scholarships, the Missoula Children’s Theatre Humboldt stop, and new and worthwhile concerts and shows, says Brian Grest with Arts Humboldt.

This was Rose’s first time in Humboldt. While every new show is an experience, playing smaller shows is a hometown show every time, she says.

“Playing in any small community, including Humboldt, it feels like home every time. It’s just nice playing small town people,” says Rose.

Whether it is her original music or her cover songs, Rose says that everyone is so receptive to her music.

Small communities are currently Rose’s bread and butter with many of her shows being smaller venues in small Saskatchewan towns. Rose and the band are hoping to make it out to Regina and Saskatoon eventually, but Rose says her and the band are happy starting small and working on getting bigger.

According to her bio, Rose did keep her musical talents a secret until she sang at a school function at the age of 17. From there she was encouraged to compete in song writing competitions, eventually winning the Global Country competition in 2013 moving her on to win the title of NACMAI’s International Vocalist of the Year and Entertainer of the year for her age category in 2014 at the age 19.

Hopefully, says Rose, 2018 will be filled with even more excitement with Rose currently working on a new project.

While Rose is taking it one year at a time, the goal right now is just to continue growing her career while still staying true to her small town Saskatchewan roots.

Rain creates challenges for JCI Demolition Derby

Summer Sizzler was a busy time for a lot of people and that was no different for members of the Humboldt Chapter of JCI.

Cabaret

The JCI’s kicked off their weekend on June 16 with their annual cabaret, featuring Kal Hourd and the Last Mountain Revival.

JCI president Amanda Klitch says bringing in Hourd and his band was an easy decision, noting they play a wide variety of songs, and helps take a lot of production worries away from the Jaycees.

“He’s also been doing it for a lot of years so he helps us a lot with production. He takes care of a lot of things as well that we don’t have to necessarily worry about.”

Unfortunately for the Jaycees this year’s cabaret was slightly down in attendance from last year, with Klitch noting there were approximately 250 in attendance this year.

Despite the lower numbers Klitch was still really pleased to see so many people coming out to help support their event and the work they do within the community.

“We’re grateful for every person walking in that door and whether it’s a low attendance or big attendance it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day we’re just grateful for whatever we can get.”

Klitch says she hopes everyone enjoyed their time and those people come back next year and bring friends.

Derby

Despite the rain, which was heavy at times and wreaked havoc, the 46th Annual JCI Demolition Derby went on as planned.

The derby felt the effects of the poor weather both in the seats and in the pit as only seven cars were entered in this year’s field.

“Those seven cars, even though there was only seven, they wanted to put on a show, they wanted to make their time worthwhile and so we wanted to make everyone’s time worthwhile,” noted Klitch.

Klitch admitted the rain caused a number of challenges throughout the course of the day, even causing delays during the derby.

“We asked the guys if they wanted to keep going and they wanted to keep going whether it was pouring or not so we continued on.”

Klitch admitted the rain also caused the Jaycces to consider canceling the event for the first time in many years, but noted that rain is a normal occurrence at their derby and after all the work that was put in to it they did not want the rain to stop them.

“It was a really hard decision and it took some different scenarios that we had to discuss and figure something out but at the last minute we ordered a whole bunch of sheets of ply wood from Rona and they were outstanding and they came right away.”

In addition to ply wood the Jaycees also received help from Darcy Loose who supplied some hay bales to help keep everyone less muddy.

After two heats, a cripple heat and a final heat Clint Burtnack emerged as the winner of the 46th annual derby.

A lot of people put a lot of effort into making the derby a success, says Klitch who noted Murray and Chris Hergott were a tremendous help.

“Murray Hergott volunteered his machines to help make a field into something and Chris Hergott and him both took time out of their busy days to transform that land...Without them this would not have happened. ”

In addition to the Hergott’s Klitch would also like to thank Jason Schlachter, Scott Frank, Rocky Saretsky, Mikey Bunko, the City of Humboldt, and anyone else who volunteered in any way.

“We’re a small organization and we couldn’t be able to do these kinds of things without those guys helping out and so we just want to say thank you for that.”

Klitch says it was unfortunate the weather was so poor but says she hopes those that were there can see the potential their new grounds have.

“We have lots of ideas to make it better for next year. So we hope that people got to see it at least and have a vision of what could come of that area.”

Comic Con sets new records at Summer Sizzler

Humboldt was full of super heroes on June 17 as they played host to another Comic Con event.

The 2017 Humboldt Summer Sizzler Comic Con featured 38 vendor booths from all over including many from Saskatoon, Regina, and other smaller communities, and even some from Alberta in a wide variety of genres, including music, caricature and sketch artists, face painting, comic book booths, jewelry, and craft wares among others.

Organizer Jeff Burton noted the craft wares specifically has really branched out over the years finding its way into the comic book, and superhero realm.

“You get a lot of people that are doing that kind of stuff that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find at an event like this.”

The 38 vendors is a significant improvement over last year, with Burton estimating there were approximately 1.5 times more, which shows it continues to gain traction, he says.

“The name is getting out there. The fact that most of these tables came to us instead of us sourcing them out shows that people are talking about it, they’re seeing it out there and they want to be a part of it.”

After hosting the Comic Con during the summer fun camp, Burton made the decision to move the event to Sizzler weekend, which has made a significant increase to attendance, he noted.

“We have people coming to Humboldt already so now we can tag team and just feed into each other off of that.”

Of course, having Humboldt as a central location in the province also does not hurt, he says.

“We get that draw feeling and there’s lots of people that are coming from the bigger centres out here that are coming to take part in Sizzler Comic Con. They’re here because it’s a smaller venue, a little more intimate but still that attraction they’re looking for plus the midway up top, it’s a great family thing.”

The Comic Con saw well over 450 people walk through the venue, with a lot of people providing positive feedback, noted Burton.

“There’s a lot of people that are really excited about what they are seeing, excited by all the stuff that’s happening all around and generally really positive and upbeat about being able to take part in something like this.”

Looking ahead to next year Burton says they have been given the go ahead already.

“(Mayor Rob Muench) was here and he wants us to go bigger and better next year already.”