I thought I’d take part in the Canada Day festivities around our city. One such place was hosting a concert, fireworks, bouncy castles for kids. What you would think would be a good family event. We get in line to get on the castle and the attendant asks for tickets. Hhmmm I think. So we find out that the kids stuff is not free (and was not advertised anywhere in the festivities booklet). I find the kiosk and it is $2.50/bounce or a bracelet for $15. I was baffled by this, on a day when every festival I’ve been to has been “free” (city and 40+ sponsors supposedly fund this), something aimed at kids isn’t. I pay an awful lot of taxes here and see little return, kids playing for free would have been a nice gesture to see.
Here’s why I am most annoyed by this, the city can:
Give a promoter $400,000 for being a tool, give a business man $56 million plus for a convention centre, go over budget on a road by $8 million (80%), but christ do they need to save $5,000 from kids entertainment. —Don’t Bother
This article appears in Jun 28 – Jul 4, 2012.
hello are you refering to the event right by the halifax skatepark(bowl) in the commons?
Your kids don’t pay taxes so they gotta cough up some dough, OB. Get over it.
Kids don’t help the economy and infrastructure like roads and cool buildings can.
Agreed, that was the most ridiculous event I’ve ever seen. $15 for a bracelet for some bouncy castles. The promotion company seemed to have a monopoly on drinks at the event to and was only providing them at one of their booths with massive lineups. Why not separate attraction ticket and drink lines? Then someone had the bright idea of putting a massive tower for a zipline right in front of the area where the fireworks were displayed…brains, people, you have them, use em. Oh, and the speakers cut out on one half of the event space for the last hour the show. And there was some crappy dance music playing during the fireworks that just made no sense. Not to mention the fireworks….let’s just blow off everything we’ve got randomly. Don’t bother making some semblance of a fireworks “show” out of it. And finally, the day itself…move the holiday to Monday so that everyone has to work on Canada day and can’t spend it with their families, and then when they want to go shop and pump money into this dead economy on their day off, shut the whole place down. This city and province are run by clowns. Ok, I’ll shut it now.
Two dislikes? Must be the annoying parents of bastard kids.
Oh and….yeah, a few dozen police officers standing around doing nothing all evening. Couldn’t one of them have gone to the intersection to organize traffic out of the supermarket parking lot so people didn’t have to wait an hour to get out? That’s what police do in most cities. It was a big event. That means lots of people. Which means lots of cars. Big event. Lots of People. Lots of cars. You get the picture? Seriously HRM. Who organizes this shit?
my canada day was great stayed at home drank and drank and drank with friends, then watched the bedford fireworks from my balcony. Didnt think it was all that bad and fireworks werent bad either
The Museum of Natural History was free! I saw Gus out for a stroll :). I don’t really know why they would charge for a bouncy castle though.. maybe the insurance was a ton?
holy crap, that’s a lot of coin, and it’s not like there’s carnies^^. i don’t like crowds, i spent the weekend with dog visitors and other stuff
What a wanker you are, OB. It’s not the governments job to provide your children with anything more than what your taxes pay for, like “free” health care, “free” education, subsidized daycare, etc. I don’t think that “free” entertainment on Canada day falls under what the government “owes” you for your taxes.
You must be talking about Canada Day at the Bedford waterfront park. Yes it was a $15.00 bracelet for the bouncy castles, that did not include the zip line or the trampoline thingy. I had a good time though because my granddaughter had a good time. I expect my wallet to be sucked dry at these kind of events.
What was with the refreshments or lack thereof? No hot dogs, hamburgers or french fries just cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones, oh and beaver tails. Adults might want to eat too you know. Luckily, I love popcorn, even at $3.00 for a little bag.
Seven dislikes. Must be some overly sensitive dumb-ass parents of stupid, little, snot-nosed diaper wasters.
There’s always a charge for the kiddie events because they can get away with it.
Adult events — well, you’re going to get a lot more adults saying ‘Fuck that, I ain’t paying for that shit” and that’s that…. but when it comes to kids, if you say “no, I’m not paying for you to go in the fun bouncy castle” to your kids, you upset your kids and you look like a shit. And these days parents can’t seem to say no, and they don’t wnat to disappoint their kids… so the event promoters have more of a chance to get people to pony up at these events.
It’s like the time I went to a certain theme park and went on the pony ride. it wasn’t included in the price of the bracelet, and I’ll tell you, to this day (I was 8), I remember the guy running the rides holding out his hand for my $2 before he’d even say “hi” to me. Even then it gave me a disgusting feeling.
Money grubbers who target kids are the lowest of the low.
Next time we’ll spring for Shrek and a rapping faerie, ok?
yeah, and refreshments weren’t free either!
beer is the adult bouncy castle. it should have been free too!
fuck, over 6 bucks a beer…
should have been $15 all you can drink at least…
Three words. GIANT WATER PARK. Right by Lawrencetown
Up to 24 dislikes!
Go fuck yourselves, windbag, cheapskate, self-entitled, broke-ass parents! 😀
And the heck with your ugly, snot-nosed dish-rag brats too!
Surprisingly I’ll have to admit that the party at Alderney Landing was pretty nice and so were the fireworks. Bit of a cover charge to get access to the ‘booze’ section but considering the cleanup work involved afterwards it made sense.