Paul Szmal: Good morning, Americans. It's Friday. Not just any Friday, but the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, which means celebrate commemorating the birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo and Sarah Smolenski is here to fill us in on some of the activities that are happening. Sarah, good morning.
Guest: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: First thing we want to emphasize to everybody is three words, rain or shine.
Guest: That is correct. The only way anything will be canceled is if we get lightning. So parade will go on rain or shine. The craft fair will be rain or shine. Anything that's happening will be rain or shine. So just bring the rain gear if you're planning to head out tomorrow.
Paul Szmal: I drove by yesterday and the tents are starting to go up in the vendor village in the park.
Guest: Yes, everything is starting. You'll start seeing more and more today. We finish up and then we go live per se at six o'clock tonight with a food truck rodeo and a night train will be on the stage tonight.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, somebody mentioned that to me yesterday. The night train was playing. It's like cool. Yeah.
Guest: Yeah, we've got some really nice lineups. You know, we've got our everyday stuff with our vendors and our stuff down on Oak Island. Don't forget about them. Car show on Sunday. But we also have a really great entertainment lineup. So of course, we've got the Hitmen. Who doesn't love them? Marine Mischief will be down on Oak Island. New this year we have is Shelly Major. We've got the Jesse Novak Band. We've got a new jazz band. And then of course, you can't forget the fireworks at 930 on Saturday.
Paul Szmal: I know I was gonna ask about those. So yeah, fireworks are always fun, especially when they're over Oak Island.
Guest: Absolutely. Everybody says we're one of the best in the area.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, without a doubt having seen them more than a time or two because I'm a little bit of a fireworks aficionado.
Guest: Yeah, I can I can never get enough firework shows.
Paul Szmal: Within the Vendor Village. I know we were talking to Christina Ehlers yesterday. Cornell Cooperative Extension has their tent. They've got the Junior Iron Chef competition going on on Sunday as part of their activities.
Guest: Absolutely, you're not going to want to miss it. We also have a bunch of stuff going on over at the Kids Corner. We've got live animals. So come see the petting zoo. We've got bubbles. Hopefully again, the rain if the rain holds out for us, you'll get to be able to play with some amazing bubbles and the sizes of bubbles is just it's unreal.
Paul Szmal: And one of the cool things about Celebrate Commemorate that I always enjoy seeing them in the parade, see him walking around the grounds are the people dressed as Abraham Lincoln, other historical figures.
Guest: Yes, we've got Abe's the one that's coming this year. Unfortunately, Teddy couldn't make it. He's on another cruise. But Abe Lincoln will be there. You can catch him of course down on Oak Island. But he will also be on the boat tours. And he will also be on the train this year.
Paul Szmal: Cool. Cool. The 5k happens tomorrow.
Guest: The 5k will be tomorrow. It starts right at the Waterloo High School. And then Sunday is the car show.
Paul Szmal: Sunday's the car show. You can't you can't beat that. It's over 300 cars, I believe so.
Guest: And they're going to make an amazing memorial for Walt Young who passed earlier this year. So all of his vehicles will be on display with his picture and memory.
Paul Szmal: Very nice. Very nice. We're talking with Sarah Smolenski about Celebrate Commemorate happening this weekend in Waterloo. Waterloony.com by the way is the website or as I was referencing yesterday Doris Wolfe used to call it Waterloony.
Guest: That is correct. Waterloo NY.com.
Paul Szmal: And one of the other activities that's always fun to watch is the Civil War reenactment.
Guest: Absolutely. And that all of that inform or all of that activity goes right down happens right down on Oak Island from the different demonstrations to music. You'll like I said you'll find Abe Lincoln down there. There's different troops musket firing which is really cool. Some different demonstrations with that. And then there's also lots of music that happens down there as well.
Paul Szmal: Are they doing the cannon firing this year?
Guest: I don't believe so. But you know if you've never seen you have to pack the musket and everything to get it to fire. It's a throwback to what happened you know back not only in the Civil War era but the Revolutionary War era. So that is correct.
Paul Szmal: Any other special activities things of that nature that we want to let people know about?
Guest: I think it's just come on out and enjoy enjoy the event. This is 27 years that the event has been going on. There's always something new that you might have missed the year before. Just pack your umbrella and wear your raincoat.
Paul Szmal: Yeah and there's every year there's new vendors that are part of the Vendor Village. So they're always there's always something new and cool to check out there. And then of course you have the traditional lynch pins. You have the parade 11 o'clock Saturday.
Guest: 11 o'clock sharp.
Paul Szmal: Yep. Yeah and then you have Sunday. You have the car show. You have the fireworks. You've got the 5k on Saturday. So there'll be people out there running in the rain.
Guest: Yes they will.
Paul Szmal: So everybody do your little dance. Whatever your you know your thing is let's not have it rain and end up being a beautiful weekend.
Guest: Yeah well I you know I'm going to talk to Kevin Williams here in a little bit. I'll see if I can put in a good word for some.
Paul Szmal: Okay perfect. For some rain free activity for Saturday. So again WaterlooNY.com the website where you can find out all the details on Celebrate Commemorate. Our stations will be there. We'll be right at the corner of the park. You can see us there from 9 until 1 tomorrow. Sarah thanks for stopping in this morning. Appreciate it.
Guest: Thanks for having us.
