Most of Canada gets a 3-day long weekend in August — but not St. John's
Why is there a mid-week, weather-dependent holiday in St. John's — a city known for terrible weather?
On the first Wednesday of every August, 50 people get together at 5:30 a.m. in a boathouse in St. John's to vote on whether the people of the city will get the day off work.
Out here, the regatta is seen as this highfalutin townie thing.- George Ayoub
That decision will be based entirely on the weather.
"There's a lot of pressure," says Chris Neary, whose recommendation on the day will lead the vote. "The more the weather reports are looking fuzzy, the more the pressure's on and the more nervous you are."
This is Regatta Day in St. John's. In a city known for its horrible, unpredictable weather, Regatta Day is Canada's only weather-dependent civic holiday.
The Regatta Day holiday is scheduled each year for the first Wednesday in August, to coincide with the Royal St. John's Regatta, a daylong series of rowing races on Quidi Vidi Lake.
Neary is the regatta's course captain. He looks at different weather models and predictions to make a recommendation on whether the races should go ahead or be postponed.
There's a general sense of flirting with disaster, that's always fun.- Sandy May
He then presents his opinion to the regatta committee and they vote on his recommendation.
At 6 a.m., they announce their decision to the media, and the people of St. John's either crawl back into bed to glory in their mid-week holiday — or get ready for a regular day of work, which, depending on the gamble they took the night before, could be quite unpleasant.
Throwing the dice
The night before the regatta is an established tradition known affectionately, or begrudgingly, as regatta roulette.
Bars and bands capitalize on people playing regatta roulette, drinking until the wee hours of the morning and hoping for good weather, so they don't wind up going to work the next day hung over and exhausted.
"There's a general sense of flirting with disaster, that's always fun," said Sandy May, who plays with the band Texas Chainsaw.
For what it's worth, forecast models suggest the Aug. 2 races will indeed go ahead in St. John's.
Planning nightmare
Regatta Day is a municipal holiday regulated by the provincial Shops Closing Act. It's not a statutory holiday, but most of the stores in the city close for the day and everyone gets the day off work.
If the races are delayed, the holiday is delayed, and businesses and the city go about their business as usual.
I love it now, but I didn't love it at the time.- LeighAnne O'Neil
"In 2007, the regatta was cancelled," said LeighAnne O'Neill, the regatta's general manager. The races that year had to go ahead on the Thursday.
"I was getting married the Saturday after regatta. And of course that impacted my plans."
She said it's a story she now laughs at, especially since she's become the manager.
"I love it now," she said. "But I didn't love it at the time."
In 2007, when O'Neill found herself scrambling to put together the final pieces of her wedding after an unexpected Thursday holiday, the race had been delayed by tropical storm Chantal, which caused flooding and damage across the city significant enough for the storm to earn its own Wikipedia page.
In 2008, rain and winds delayed the event until Friday.
The day no ships arrived
The regatta is the oldest sporting event in the country. The official word of the regatta committee is that the first race was held in 1818, making next year, 2018, its 200th run.
Jack Fitzgerald, who has written three books on the event, said the municipal holiday that comes along with it dates back to 1871.
The merchants found that if Regatta Day fell on a day the passenger ships arrived, they had no workers to unload the ships. The ships didn't come in on Wednesdays, so they moved the race to Wednesday.
Fitzgerald said the tradition is still important and that it would be silly to do it any other way.
"Even people who never go down there, they want that regatta holiday," he said.
The variability of Regatta Day fouls up schedules and confuses tourists, but nobody seems to want Regatta Day to change.
"They stay around their home, they watch it on TV and they do their drinking and everything at home," said Fitzgerald.
"I've got friends who never miss a regatta since the television came in."
When the race goes ahead, upward of 50,000 people head to the lake. This year, there are 100 rowing teams from all over the world signed up to compete in 23 different races over the day.
Following a long-standing regatta tradition, booths spring up along both sides of the lake housing wheels of fortune, bean bag tosses, 50-50 draws, dunk tanks, beer tents, food stands, pony rides and laser tag.
Todd Hickey, owner of the St. John's french fry truck franchise Ziggy Peelgood's, said they go through more than two tonnes of potatoes on Regatta Day.
The Orange Store convenience stores are even debuting a fancy new portable toilet, equipped with a mirror and diaper change table, at this year's regatta.
"We pride ourselves on having the cleanest and brightest washrooms," said marketing manager Jeff Burton. "Why not take that on the road?"
The Metrobus system offers $1 rides to Quidi Vidi Lake from points all over the city on Regatta Day. If the weather's really good, said Mark Chancey, marketing manager for Metrobus, the system will complete 20,000 rides to the lake.
On a typical non-regatta weekday, he said, Metrobus would do 12,000 to 15,000 rides. It's a busy day for drivers, but a headache for scheduling.
"If it doesn't go ahead Wednesday, we know who's working Thursday. And if it doesn't go ahead Thursday, we know who's working Friday. So we are prepared for it to be delayed, which is kind of a unique situation."
And does having to make three separate schedules for his employees make him wish the holiday could just be on a regular Monday?
"Not a bit."
Hamster races
With shops closed in St. John's, stores outside of the capital city have Regatta Day sales and events to attract shoppers beyond the city limits.
For families looking to take a break from the sweaty, sticky crowds down by the lake, Critters 'n Things in Mount Pearl offers a different kind of race.
According to manager Christina Smith, the store's Regatta Day barbecue and hamster race is the biggest day of sales each year.
"It draws a pretty big crowd, for a hamster race," Smith said.
Kids bring their own hamsters and hamster balls to race on a small track inside the store. Winners of the round-robin tournaments get new cages for their champion pets.
Smith notes that though someone tries every year, this race is only open to hamsters; other rodents are barred from competition.
Waiting for lumber sales
In the more rural towns, Regatta Day sales at the hardware stores are hotly anticipated.
"Out here, the regatta is seen as this highfalutin townie thing," says George Ayoub, who owns a cluster of tourist cabins in Bauline East. "I'm more interested in the lumber sales."
"It's one of the busiest days of the year, every year," said Tom Stack, yard manager at the Witless Bay Home Hardware. "But this year, with the economy the way it is, I'm expecting it to be busier."
They put everything in their store on sale and have hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill for their customers.
Stack said a drooping economy, and a bump in the price of lumber due to forest fires, has led to lower sales, and he could use the extra customer traffic Regatta Day sales bring in.
Don't fix what isn't broken
While the weather can interfere with the holiday, people in St. John's are used to weather screwing up their plans.
"It's like a snowstorm day," said Nancy Healey, CEO of the St. John's Board of Trade. "It's part of the uniqueness of Newfoundland and Labrador."
Matthew Howse, who owns Broken Books and has to close up shop and go without a day of income each Regatta Day, said the variability is exactly what makes it appealing.
"There's something to be said for things that aren't rigid," he said. "We live these regimented, nine to five lives. Why not have something politically instated on the municipal level that isn't so rigid?"