From the "How Bowen Celebrates" file...



Saturday was Bowfest, the traditional culmination to the summer season with a full day of food, music and activities in the picnic filed down in the Cove. The most amusing part of it is that the tickets are deeply discounted if you buy them prior to the day, meaning that the tourists get bilked, in a kind of good hearted "welcome-to-our-community-event" kind of way.



This year featured the perennial teen lip synch contest, which was won by a trio of youngsters doing "It's a Hardknock Life" with all the moves from the musical. A surprise appearance was even put in by the Three Tenors, consisting of Bowen Office System's Richard Goth et. al. It was a stunning impersonation of Pavorotti, Domingo and "the other guy" (Carreras...).



Some things were different this year. The tug of war didn't happen becasue there was a large wooden singletrack bike structure dominating most of the filed upon which four cyclists rendered heart stopping stunts every hour on the hour. World class local talent, these guys defied logic and saftey standards by plummeting from a sixteen foot drop onto a wooden ramp and barrelling at high speed for the VONIGO pottery display. Not one mug was cracked on the day.



The slug races somehow never got going, and the United Church folks eschewed two weeks worth of pie baking for a fish and chips operation, but the event still had the air of tradition about it. As they have done every year for decades, the teen agers huddled together in little groups occaisionally bombing each other with water balloons or creeping off into the forest together. The beer tent was packed and the Tir na N'Og theatre school did a brisk business off the grill in their annual fundrasier. As the evening progressed, the Legion got the salmon barbecue running and several victims of sun and lager attempted to run the gauntlet of six - count 'em SIX - RCMP officers as they tried to find the straightest line home.



Bowfest is a must attend for Islanders. You are almost guaranteed to see people you haven't seen all summer, catch up on what's going on and have a good time. It's one of those big days in the life of a small community.