Join the Field Day fun this Saturday

Editorial

There's a brand new event being hatched in Tupper Lake this Saturday and there's great odds that it's going to bring a lot of fun to the Tupper Lake Municipal Park.

The Tupper Lake Field Day is the creation of the Town of Tupper Lake's recreation director, Laura LaBarge, and it has enjoyed widespread support from Acting Supervisor Mary Fontana and her three other bosses on the town board. All of them are excited this week about the new event.

Laura's idea was to try to produce a new July event that would replace Tupper Lake's premier summer event of the past four decades- the Tupper Lake Woodsmen's Days, which has been handicapped by a shrinking pool of volunteers and a changing woods industry in recent years. The event didn't emerge this year after the pandemic.

The new Tupper Lake Field Day was designed to be something of a replica of field days observed in many American towns every summer- where good food, entertainment and old fashioned family fun are all rolled into a single day of hometown celebration.

The Tupper Lake Field Day begins at 11a.m. on Main Street and The Boulevard with a parade dedicated to the first responders and life-saving volunteers of our community and the North Country communities in general.

Appropriately dubbed “Not All Heros Wear Capes,” parade-goers can expect to see a host of shiny emergency vehicles representing many local and area departments, marchers and floats that are expected to carry a Batman, Robin, Superman or two. But we're just guessing that at this point.

The parade will also honor as its grand marshall the late town supervisor, Clint Hollingsworth. Clint would have loved to have joined the fun Saturday and see the new event in town.

The town is offering cash prizes of $300, $200 and $100 for the best overall entries.

To participate in the parade, register at www.tupperlakeny.gov on the Recreation Page, or call 518-359-8370.

After the parade all the police and rescue agencies will park their rigs along the firemen's strip in the park where visiting children will be able to “explore a rig”- to actually climb on board to inspect them up close. Represented there will be the North Country Life Flight helicopter, fire trucks, police vehicles, ambulances, state emergency vehicles, fuel trucks and even a rail car. Those inspections will run from noon to about 2p.m.

At or about 2p.m. various types of old fashioned games for both children and adults will commence in the park. It is expected to be a lot of fun. Kids playing to take part should report to the park about 1:30p.m., according to Mrs. LaBarge.

Children's games between 2p.m. and 4p.m. will include a Little Bucket Relay and spoon race for ages 2 to 5 and sack races and tug-of-war for ages 6-8 and 9-12. Adult field games will run 4 to 6p.m. Those games will include a bucket relay for first responders only , three-legged races and tug-of-war for ages 13 and older, including adults. Tupper Lake loves tug-of-war contests, judging by their popularity at the Saturday evening pulls of past Woodsmen's Days here.

Online pre-registration is available on the event page for all field games and is strongly encouraged for planning purposes.

The afternoon will also be punctuated with all sorts of exciting and fun activities like a Cornhole competition, an extreme inflatable obstacle course, bounce houses, a dunk tank, face painting, etc.

Proceeds from the $1 per throw dunk tank will go to help buy new computers for the patrol cars of the TLPD.

Good Guys Productions will have many of its inflatable play pieces there to challenge and delight young climbers.

There will be plenty to eat and drink with at least four food and drink vendors, including Tyler's Pizza, Porkbusters BBQ, the Lions Club and their amazing onion-smothered hot dogs and hamburgers, North Country Kettle Corn. Summer sweet treats aplenty will pour from the park.

For beer-lovers there will be two licensed vendors- the VFW Post 3120 and P-2's Irish Pub. A cold beer on what is hoped will be a hot and sunny summer day is always welcome. An event note: coolers aren't permitted in the park that day.

For some messy fun, town staffers have organized what is called “a color slime run/walk” at 3:30p.m. Already over 70 people have signed up to get slimy.

Participants will begin at the Rotary pavilion end of the shoreline walk and will run/walk/jog to the bandshell, where they’ll turn and head back to where they started. Family members and friends are invited to stand along the sidelines to squirt runners with rainbow colored slimes!

In the park too Saturday in and around the Rotary Pavilion will be over two dozen craft booths and merchandize vendors- because the organizers know that someone in every family loves to shop.

At 6p.m., the event will switch gears from family friendly to grown-up fun! A concert stage from Good Guy Productions will be set up in front of the Rotary Pavilion where local band, The Altered Tones, will open with alternate rock covers. The main act will feature Ontario-based Fully Completely Hip – a Tragically Hip tribute band. Advanced tickets for the concert are available at the Town Hall or can be reserved online on our event page. Day-of tickets will be available at the admissions booth on Field Day. Those who purchased tickets in advance, are asked to simply present their ticket stub to the admissions booth in exchange for an event bracelet. Event bracelets must be shown as proof of purchase. Active and retired military, law enforcement, fire, rescue, corrections, dispatch and doctors/nurses receive free concert admission!

Mac's Safe ride will be available to help get everyone get home safely. Some of the food vendors are expected to continue into the evening.

Events like this one, where Mrs. LaBarge and her helpers have devoted a copious amount of time to organize, to plan and ultimately stage, and where the town has invested a lot of money this year to launch it, can only be successful and long-running if people show up to take part in the fun. We're hopeful Tupper Lake and its visitors Saturday will come out and support Tupper Lake's first Field Day so that it can become an annual summer event here.

-Dan McClelland