Depending on the weather, hundreds of people could show up for the B.C. Day weekend celebration of B.C. Parks 100th anniversary at Purden Lake.
Festivities include sand castle building, colouring and short story contests, fly-tying demonstrations, musical entertainment, children's activities and a 100-step nature walk and interpretive talk on the flora and fauna of Purden Lake.
Each week there is a celebration at a different lake throughout the province.
"This event is going to be a bit bigger than our usual celebration," said Pedra Stephen, a park facility operator for the nine provincial parks in the Prince George area.
Friday starts off with the colouring and short story contest, then on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. the family sand castle building contest, fly-tying demonstration and musicians will perform with games taking place throughout the day.
On Sunday the big sandcastle building contest will begin at 11 a.m. with the 100-step walk at 2 p.m. and Monday will see winners of the colouring contest and short story contest get prizes from 9:30 to 11 a.m.
The second day of the castle building contest is left for the more serious competitor with the B.C. Legislature as the theme.
"It's anything representing B.C. and its parks or what represents B.C. to you and we'll have posters of buildings in Victoria to help inspire participants," said Stephen.
Top prize for the Sunday contest is a kayak.
Funding for this event, including contest prizes like a fly-fishing rod and kayak is provided by the Provincial Capital Commission. The mandate for the commission is to connect and celebrate the capital with British Columbians and this is achieved through outreach programs like the Purden Lake event.
More information about this and other events held throughout the summer can be seen on the Facebook page Northern BC Provincial Parks.
