Watermelon was devoured and the crowd awaited chicken defecation as people got together for Lantzville Minetown Day.
Celebrating the district’s history, there were watermelon-eating contests, fair attractions, a bike parade, tractor rides, food and the popular chicken poop bingo at Huddlestone Park in Lantzville on Saturday, Aug. 6.
While an event was held last year amidst high COVID-19 numbers, this year was closer to normal, said Bob Colclough, Minetown Day organizing committee chairperson, who has been involved on and off since the early 1980s.
“It’s fantastic, in fact, this is the biggest turnout, especially with kids, that I can remember,” he said. “We had twice as many kids in the bike parade and twice as many kids in the nail hammering contest, so it’s been great.”
Robyn Hewer, Minetown Day volunteer and owner of the chicken poop bingo hen, said the contest is “unique, weird and wonderful.”
The star of Chicken Poop Bingo at #Lantzville Minetown Day. pic.twitter.com/OJAv0q5tmb
— Karl Yu (@KarlYuBulletin) August 6, 2022
“We feed the chicken freely on the day of and let her just roam on the board … anyone can enter, they can pick as many squares as they want,” said Hewer. “This year we did give an option for donations. [They’re] staying in the community and they’re going to support Ukrainian families that we’re hosting in Lantzville.”
The event dates back to the ’70s, according to Colclough.
“In 1975 was the 50th anniversary of the Lantzville Hotel and … the owner decided to have a big party to celebrate that and it was so much fun people said, ‘Let’s do this every year and we’ll call it Minetown Day.’”
RELATED: Lantzville celebrating Minetown Day this weekend
reporter@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter