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Hope Brigade Days

Demolition Derby FUN!

By Bruce Curle `Published 3 years ago 4 min read
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Demolition Derby at Hope Brigade Days 2021 Warren Curle

A few hour's drive outside of the busy city of Vancouver, British Columbia, is the town of Hope, B.C. Brigade Days have been celebrated in this community since 1968 and have become an important event in the town community. My entire family, at various times, has all enjoyed this event.

What makes this fair different from so many is it still has the "Small Town" feeling and experience. The entrance is not expensive and you can bring your own chairs, tarps to sit on and your own food and drinks. (Sorry not your own homemade liquor)

My adult son and I always enjoy attending the Demolition Derby events on the last day of the celebration. My son has enjoyed derby events since before he could walk properly, and his love for automobiles has grown more and more with time. I have never met an automobile that I did not want to drive on a country road or zoom along on a highway in.

Brigade Days in September 2021 was a cooler, sometimes wet event, but with great volunteers, friendly security, and interesting vendors. Yes, there was a saloon, music, event rides, and other events, but we were both focused on the pit area and did not partake of the other facilities except for a visit to the Port-A-Potty.

Some might ask, what is a Demolition Derby? This is the only legal place to smash your vehicle into others repeatedly and get cheered as you do it. It might be the only place where you can drive your vehicle with two or more flat tires as your radiator gushes steam across your windscreen. Oh, that’s right, you have no windshield.

Hope’s Brigade Day Demolition Derby and Figure Eight racing event this year was one of the best in a long time. It was a full-day event, lots of vehicles from trucks to small sedans and everything in between. A place where the crowd appreciated the events and cheered their favourites on. A fun family event where you did not have the smell of marijuana or the odour of stale beer lingering over the crowd.

Yes, the annoying sound of the feedback from some of the speakers could have been avoided by keeping the gear dry, but this took very little away from the event. The roar of the engines, crashing of steel on steel more than made up for this.

Figure-eight racing with small autos in a demolition derby setting is a unique sport but beware that often your track keeps changing. When the race begins, there are two large equipment tires placed in the ring. The vehicles are to race around them in a figure-eight pattern until many laps are completed. Between the mud, the puddles and six to ten vehicles racing around this enclosure, all sorts of things can occur. Collisions, stalls, mud coating entire vehicles are but a few of the usual occurrences at such events. It is not unheard of to have the tires moved around, changing the course from time to time. Occasionally vehicles get wedged on top of these tires as well. When the winner is declared and the horns sound, it is not rare to discover a third to half the vehicles are no longer able to move. As the crowd cheers, front-end loaders move in and often pick the vehicle off the ground or out of the mud and carry them out of the pit.

Everyone loves the traditional battle between the giant old cars of the 1960s to 1980s. The Hope Brigade days also had minivan events, pick-up trucks, and suburban events, and at the end of the day, the “Wipe Out” event, also known as the “Grudge Match” This last event is always a crowd favourite. This year saw the epic battle between large automobiles, a minivan, and a tiny sedan. The crowd was not disappointed by the show and skill of these drivers. The minivan and small auto were cheered on as they battled a David verse Goliath battle until they both were eventually stalled out and too battered to fight on.

"WIPE OUT" Brigade Days 2021 Warren Curle

Hope Brigade Days Demo Derby 2021 Warren Curle

Special thanks to the Hope Volunteers, the Emergency Personal and the mosh pit of small children that in-between events raced around, allowing many parents to stretch their legs. The swaying toilet facilities also added to the fair experience, as did the natural charm of the Hope scenery.

We will be back next year, hoping for another great day of fun.

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About the Creator

Bruce Curle `

A Fifty something male that enjoys writing short stories, scripts and poetry. I have had many different types of work over my lifetime and consider myself fairly open minded and able to speak on many topics.

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