ATHABASCA – From fiestas to festivals volunteers in the Village of Boyle have been organizing family entertainment for decades including an event this past weekend.
The success of Boyle’s eleventh annual Wildberry Festival held Aug. 5 and 6 comes as no surprise as the village has become something of a hub for celebration, drawing in everything from ball tournaments to the circus and while we have all grown familiar with the annual events hosted in Boyle, the question is where these events started and what events occurred in the past.
“Wendy Chromiak-Newmann presented ideas to the Boyle Chamber of Commerce for her vision to create and develop a fun community event with a theme to identify the village of Boyle. It would include a family festival, promote beautification for our residents and business to take pride and get involved,” Wildberry Festival co-founder Ellen Knowles said.
This initial presentation occurred in October of 2010 and was the first step on the journey that would lead the festival to what it is today.
“We went to our local businesses and asked them to participate with some berry themed activities at their storefronts. We had all sorts of fun games planned (like) Boyle Sumo wrestling in blueberry and cranberry suits. We also had berry themed crafts,” Knowles said.
“Many changes over the years have completed our vision for this festival. Friday we will be having the night's jam session, Saturday is breakfast, the parade, and festival.”
While the Wildberry Festival has only been around for a little over a decade, Boyle has been a central location for events such as these for nearly a century.
One of the first recorded annual events in Boyle dates to 1930 when the Boyle Community Club sponsored the annual picnic.
Since then, Boyle has hosted an array of events to ensure its citizens always have something to do.
The annual Boyle Road Rally, which was hosted in the 1970s, brought with it long days of exploration and excitement.
In these rally's, individuals were given a very lengthy list of intricate and confusing directions that they were to follow in their cars to the finish line with the goal of finishing first. While later events saw more participants neck in neck, the first rally had some arriving after nine hours despite the race only covering a 150-mile distance.
“Though the experience was at times confusing, all participants agreed over a hearty meal, provided by Boyle’s Home Ec. Club, that it had been an extremely exciting day, and that they were practiced up for the next one,” an Athabasca Echo reporter wrote about the road rally.
Despite the fact that these early events are no longer hosted, the well-known Fiesta Days have been present in Boyle for 54 years.
The first Fiesta Days was in 1967 with the central ball tournament at the middle of the event, however the event brought with it a parade, musical performances, bingo games, and a popular beerfest which typically saw over 800 people.
The legacy of community spirit runs still runs deep in Boyle.
