TRAMPING LAKE ‑ With pandemic restrictions lifted, summer festival season is back on. Aug. 5 and 6, the Tramping Lake Park will welcome back the fifth annual Tralapa Festival that will host a variety of musical performances, slo-pitch tournament, mini golf, beach volleyball and food trucks on site.
Headlining this year’s music lineup is the group Monster Truck. The music stage will showcase artists on both Friday and Saturday night of the two-day event.
With only a one-year hiatus in 2020, due to the onset of the pandemic, festival organizers were able to host a subdued, one-day event in 2021.
The event is organized by a group that refer to themselves as Park Rangers, complete with matching park ranger uniforms. Ryan Neumeier, Devin Charteris, Ashton Tetzlaff, Chad Tetzlaff, Garret Smith, Mike Aldous, Russell Charteris, Gerard Beaven, Brandon Zerr, Mark Knorr and Trina Charteris plan, organize, and oversee the event.
Promotional material states the Tramping Lake Park has been a part of many people’s youth, from day camping trips to long weekend getaways. It was also home of the first mini golf course at a regional park in Saskatchewan.
Ranger, Ryan Neumeier, tells the Press-Herald / SASKTODAY.ca, “The event started as a fundraiser to rebuild Tramping Lake Park as it had been closed for 13 years. You can imagine the condition the buildings were in, not to mention the amount of overgrowth of trees and grass.
“We are beyond ecstatic to hold a full out event in 2022.”
Neumeier says, “Every year we donate to a community cause that wins 'applause for a cause,' as well as we like to donate to a mental health organization at each event.”
The main goal of the event is to help fund ongoing improvements at the park.”
As a non-profit organization, they choose to donate available funding to the winner of the decibel challenge, known as applause for a cause. The donation process is determined by a decibel reader and a representative of every supporting town is called up to the main stage one by one and the loudest crowd response wins the contest. The winning town would then submit a request to receive a donation for the cause of their choice.
“The moment at each event when the headliner takes the stage, and you see the smiles on people’s faces, all the anxiety and stress prior to the event just disappears and it leaves you with an amazing feeling,” says Neumeier.
The Rangers say they have had a long-term goal of opening up a second stage and in 2022, they are happy to announce that they are going to be able to do that this year.
Over it's history, the festival has flourished. Neumeier says that in the first year they had roughly 500 attendees and the event has since grown to an attendance of more than 1,500. They are hoping they can break the 2,000 mark in 2022.
Festival attendees still have an option to book campsites for the weekend, but the rangers say they are going fast so to check their website or Facebook or Instagram pages for the details. Slo-pitch teams and beach volleyball teams also still have time to enter.
Sponsors are one of the keys to their success, assisting with initial costs for set up and preparation, enabling funds raised to go towards the causes they are intended.
