Celebrating the spirit of Irvine for 20 Mile Post Days

By tim Kalinowski
The community of Irvine held its annual 20 Mile Post Days celebration on the September Long Weekend. The weather was certainly a lot better this year as nearly 300 came out to eat at the pancake breakfast hosted by the Lions in Wanda Woordward Memorial Park on Saturday morning. This was followed up by a successful and colourful parade through downtown Irvine.
The usual parade route was nearly changed up this year over concerns about the deteriorated condition of the community’s only downtown railway crossing. The Irvine and District Ag. Society, which organizes much of the 20 Mile Post Days celebration, lobbied CP Rail almost up the last minute to fix that crossing. Thankfully that came to pass just the week before the big celebration kicked off.
Craig Vossler, Vice President of the Irvine and District Ag. Society, was relieved the much needed crossing work was completed on time.
“We were just worried because there were huge holes there. If someone with a horse had stepped in that hole and got their foot jammed in there, there would have been an incident… CP did a real nice job fixing it up; it is top notch.”
The parade ended up going off without a hitch, and it was much appreciated by all who came out to view it.
After the parade, the weekend continued with a downtown street fare on Saturday. There was also a chili cook-off, a HALO fundraiser, a Show and Shine, a well-attended Gymkhana, a community flea market and the Wanda Woodward Memorial Bench Show over at the Irvine Sports Complex. All benefiting greatly from the nice weather.
The evening ended with a live concert by Kelsey Porter at the Irvine Hotel bar.
On Sunday the 31st annual Irvine Rodeo took centre stage. Good crowds on hand had fun taking in all the rodeo action, capping off a stellar Long Weekend in Irvine.

Photo by Tim Kalinowski- The 20 Mile Post Days celebration went off without a hitch during the Labour Day weekend, with tremendous community support and great weather. A highlight of the event was the parade on the Saturday morning.

Photo by Tim Kalinowski- This year’s 20 Mile Post Days in Irvine had great weather and plenty of community spirit. Pictured: Something sweet is going on at Cypress Hills Honey for the parade.

Photo by Tim Kalinowski- The Shrine Clown patrol was taking part for the 20th straight year at the 20 Mile Post Days parade.

Photo by Tim Kalinowski- Flag race at the 20 Mile Post Days gymkhana.