SUNDRE – Enthusiasm for the local annual rally of Polaris Slingshots seems to be revving up.
Drawing out about 20 riders last year, the turnout for Sundre Slingfest 2023 nearly doubled.
“We had all together, it was just under 50,” said Shawna Brackley, who alongside husband Mark owns and operates Wagons West RV Park, which acts as the event’s staging area and home base for the weekend.
That number includes a combination of riders and spectators as well as volunteers, Brackley said.
“Even our volunteers come from all over Alberta, which I think is pretty unique; usually when you have a community event, it’s people volunteering from the community. But we actually have more volunteers from out of Sundre than in Sundre,” she said.
“A lot of the volunteers have volunteered for years; they keep coming back,” she said. “So, it’s an inspiring event apparently.”
The farthest away visitors drove in from this year was a group of three from Manitoba, she said.
“It took them two days to get here,” she said. “When I asked them the reason that they would travel so far to come, they said there’s no other event like this in Canada.”
There are certainly plenty of motorcycle rallies and car shows around, but “those events are somewhat impersonal in the sense that they’re based around rides and vendors and showing off the cars and that sort of thing. Whereas our event is really focused on community and interpersonal relationships,” she said.
In other words, Sundre Slingfest is not just about gathering for a few hours to show off one’s pride and joy while ogling other impressive vehicles before calling it a day and heading home, but rather building camaraderie among people with a shared interest that comes together and forms an impromptu community for the whole weekend, she said.
And although Wagons West essentially acts as the event’s headquarters, the rally is also intended to showcase not only Sundre but also the surrounding area, she said.
“That is a huge, huge part of what makes it so different,” she said, adding that among the many stops made throughout the region included Water Valley, Didsbury, Olds, Dickson, as well as a scenic tour back to Sundre along the Cowboy Trail, or Highway 22, to check out local landmarks such as the Sundre & District Museum as well as the Greenwood Campground.
“Up to this point, we’ve had such tremendous support from Sundre,” she said.
“Sundre is such a unique place compared to all those other places. We love it here, and the whole goal is to help our fellow businesses,” she said adding visitors who came in from out of town spent the July 21-23 weekend in local accommodations.
“Half the people that came had never been here before,” she said.
“That was really cool this year because since COVID, we’ve kind of had just the regulars; we have, you know, a couple new people every year. But this year, we had a tremendous amount of people.”
Many among them expressed a keen interest in returning to Sundre at their earliest opportunity, “and that of course is the goal,” she said.
Overall, this year’s Slingfest turned out “better than we expected,” she said.
“We had riders calling us in the days leading up to it asking if they could still join; if it was too late,” she said.
“We actually had spectators meeting up with us along the route,” she added. “We’re really excited about next year already. We’ve already had people request registration for next year, so we’ve already created the dates.”
Taking place annually on the third weekend of July, next year’s event is scheduled for July 19-21, she said.
The organizers hope to once again get a dealership such as Polaris onboard.
“We haven’t had that since COVID,” she said. “And we did have a lot of requests from people wanting to go on rides and that sort of thing.”
In the absence of a sponsoring dealership, Brackley said they’ll nevertheless “endeavour to make sure people can go for rides of some type next year, so the community can actually get in the Slingshots instead of just looking at them.”
This year, a couple of low-speed games including tossing plastic toy throwing axes from a Slingshot were introduced at Wagons West and seemed a fun, popular addition that conjured up plenty of chuckles, she said.
“There was so much laughter. So many kids were enamoured with it and the riders were incredibly gracious; I mean, they did not stop until every kid got a ride and got to throw an axe out of the Slingshot. It was really heartwarming,” she said.
“Hopefully, we can have that more in a public area next year,” she said, emphasizing the Slingshots were moving at slow speeds.
“We’re not talking road racing games,” she made clear, adding they also played a version of capture the flag that was also a “huge, huge hit.”
While the organizers try to find new elements to introduce to Slingfest, certain aspects aren’t going anywhere, she said.
“One thing we’re not going to get rid of because it’s so important to the end goal, is that scavenger hunt portion,” she said, adding the game encourages riders to step through the doors of participating businesses and make some purchases.
