Skip to content

VIDEO: Aug. 1 is the big night for ‘Still Standing’ premiere at Laketown Ranch

Bring your friends and join the fun as the Town of Lake Cowichan celebrates appearing on CBC show.
7784613_web1_170726-LCO-Still-Standing-Party-on-Aug-1_1
The band, Row of Crowz, who were part of the filming of Still Standing last year, will be performing at the big celebration on Aug. 1 at Laketown Ranch. (Gazette file)

The big night is just around the corner.

The premiere of the Cowichan Lake episode of CBC’s Still Standing is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1 and the town is holding a big celebration at Laketown Ranch.

Everyone’s invited. The event starts at 7 p.m. Admission and parking are both free.

The whole idea behind the TV program is that the passage of time has hit some Canadian communities hard.

Decades back, Cowichan Lake was surrounded by logging camps and lumber mills; there were log booms, log dumps, and float houses on the lake itself for loggers and families, with both CP and CN railway lines operating to haul logs, lumber, and people. Even after the highway to Camp Six opened, and road hauling of logs began, the trains were still busy into the 1970s hauling forest products to market.

Camp communities like Caycuse and Gordon River and the mill towns of Youbou and Mesachie Lake prospered.

But slowly things changed and a lot of the aspects of life that had been there “forever” disappeared, leaving the people behind, but undaunted, with a real up-and-at-‘em attitude.

That’s why the CBC sends comedian Jonny Harris around the country to unearth the tales of towns that have not given up, that are, in fact, still standing.

His efforts on behalf of Lake Cowichan caused a flurry last year, and now it’s time to see the episode he and his crew filmed here.

The premiere showing will be on a big screen at Laketown Ranch in the Flats Stage area so access should be easy for everyone.

Mayor Ross Forrest is enthusiastic about the special night and is looking for a big crowd to come out to the Ranch and enjoy the celebration.

As well as the first-ever screening of the episode, the band Row of Crowz will be playing a set or two, and there will be a showing of some bloopers from the taping of Still Standing.

Food and refreshments will be available.