Remember the Labour Day parade? It's back this year

“Generally, you were downtown, and everything was closed because it's Labour Day, so it was just the people involved in the parade,” West said. “Then you go to Richard Lake, and it's kind of tucked in the corner, with no public transportation.”

Three years ago, that changed, when the city's labour community banded together to create the Labour Day Family Fun Fest, a free festival in Bell Park involving food, music and children's activities.

The festival has been wildly popular, attracting 6,000 people in its first year, and increasing to 10,000 last year. The hope was to show people that unions are about more than just labour disputes — they also help the community.

For this year's event, the festival's planning has been centralized with the Sudbury and District Labour Council, and a few changes have been made.

With some members of the labour community concerned about the traditional aspects of Labour Day having become a thing of a past, organizers decided to include a bit of that tradition by bringing back the parade.

The parade begins in Bell Park at 10 a.m., and heads down Paris Street to Science North, before turning onto the boardwalk and heading back to the park, near the amphitheatre.

After that, an opening ceremony will be held in the amphitheatre, including speeches by dignitaries and a proclamation read by Mayor Brian Bigger.

Although the rest of the festival remains essentially the same, the event's name has been changed this year to the Labour Day Celebration, dropping the Family Fun Fest moniker.

Because the festival's been around since 2012, West said he thinks people know what to expect from it, even though the name's been changed.

“We dropped the family fun part of the name, because that was the sticking point for some people, saying that we have to remember the sacrifices of the past,” he said. “But we can still have fun doing it.”

And there's plenty of fun to be had. The festival features inflatables and face-painting for the kids, as well as a full lineup of live music.

There has been a change to the barbecue. While the food has traditionally been free, West said organizers are now charging $2 for food tickets, just to cut down on food waste, which has been a problem in the past.

The Labour Day Celebration runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information about the event, visit the festival's Facebook page.

Did you know?

The origins of Labour Day can be traced back to April 15, 1872, when the Toronto Trades Assembly organized Canada's first significant demonstration for workers' rights. Labour Day was originally celebrated in the spring, but it was moved to the fall after 1894.