He was certainly cheeky.
At least that's what the Brits call it when someone has a wry sense of humour like Matt "The Magician" Johnson, who has the accent to prove he is originally from the UK and now resides in Vancouver.
He was first to perform on the Mainstage during Summerfest Sunday morning asking for the ugliest woman in the audience to come forward and be his assistant on stage.
He called up Mayor Lyn Hall and the irony that Hall's first name is Lyn did not go unnoticed by the charming magician.
Johnson continued to amuse the audience with his shenanigans as he turned the Mayor into an inanimate object by getting him to hold his arms straight out, with his thumbs almost touching.
Can you guess?
Yup, Johnson put a toilet paper roll on Hall's thumbs and called him a holder. And we all applauded the 'trick.'
The silly kickoff set the tone found throughout the entire festival located in downtown Prince George as people were happy to explore all the activities on offer. The Community Kidz Zone was at Canada Games Plaza, the Taste Pavilion was in the parking lot of the Four Seasons Pool, the Mainstage was in the small park beside it, and in Exhibitor Alley along a stretch of Seventh Avenue were vendors and information booths.
Two fans of Summerfest, who try to attend the festival every year are Erin Yule and Courtney Hayhurst.
Erin dove right in at the Taste Pavilion, indulging in the Cool Ranch Dorito hot dog presented by Betulla Burning, a popular downtown restaurant.
"The hot dog was exceptionally good," Yule said.
Hayhurst was biding her time, making sure she saw everything that was cooking before she made her choice.
"There's way too many options, but we did try a strawberry ketchup (on the hot dog), which is very good and we tried the watermelon lemonade (created by Winston's Resto-Bar), which was very refreshing," Hayhurst said, adjusting her jaunty sun bonnet. "Next we're going to take in some of the entertainment, check out all the lovely little booths and then because we're kids at heart we'll visit the kids' area, too."
"What else would we do?" Yule asked with a shrug.
Yule and Hayhurst liked the new location of Summerfest that brought thousands downtown, saying it had a nice flow to it and parking was definitely easier.
"This is a new location for Summerfest and from my perspective the numbers are better than I've seen in past years," Colleen Van Mook, executive director for Downtown Prince George, said about 90 minutes into the event. "I think this location is working out well. There's plenty of room for people to see what's going on and the kids' zone is hopping. Exhibitor Alley is really nice, too, people are strolling along and really, there's something for everyone and the weather is more than spectacular."
