Niagara Falls Blog – Travel and Tourism News

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Retro rockers ring in new year tonight
Posted By JOHN LAW

At midnight, the calendar will say it’s 2008. But if you’re at Queen Victoria Park Monday, you might check it’s not 1985. This year’s free concert down by the falls isn’t just nostalgic, it’s defiantly retro. Leather pants? Head bands? “Working for the Weekend?” It’ll be like the last 20 years never happened.

Forgoing the youth movement, the Niagara Parks Commission has whipped up an old school lineup for tonight: Loverboy, Honeymoon Suite and Styx singer Dennis DeYoung. (more…)

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Defending Niagara Falls
High school student became ambassador for city
Posted By RAY SPITERI

She became the poster girl for the community.

Made headlines in The Niagara Falls Review.

Was a regular on CBC Radio One’s “Sounds Like Canada” and on The National, touting Niagara Falls as one of the country’s seven wonders for a contest the broadcast company had organized.

It has been a whirlwind year for Becky Puddicombe and one that makes her the city’s top newsmaker in 2007.
(more…)

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Students become stage hands for New Year’s Eve concert
Posted By COREY LAROCQUE

When the lights go up on New Year’s Eve, classic rock bands Honeymoon Suite and Loverboy will be in the spotlight. But they’d never get there if it weren’t for a group of volunteers who literally set the stage for a successful event.

“It’s a big family. Everybody works to help everybody else,” said T.J. Singer, one of about 10 high school students volunteering with the Niagara Parks Commission.

They started three days of work Wednesday to set up the stage in Queen Victoria Park that will be the focal point for the parks commission’s annual New Year’s Eve show. (more…)

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Casino offers respite from Christmas
Posted By JENNIFER PELLEGRINI

While many families in the city played with new toys, cooked turkeys and picked up mountains of wrapping paper Christmas Day, hundreds of others whiled away the hours at the Fallsview Casino.

Jack, a senior from Burlington, said he and his “gal” turned the prospect of a bleak Christmas Day without their families who are in the sunny south into a mini-break of their own.

“It’s a break from the regular Christmas routine,” said Jack who, like all of the people interviewed in the Fallsview Casino’s food court and foyer did not want to give their last name. (more…)

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Slots pay out record Christmas cheer

An Orchard Park woman will have a little help paying her Christmas bills after a big win at the Ontario Lottery an Gaming slots at Fort Erie Christmas night.

Brenda Rzybczynski was playing the Bally Quarter Millions progressive slots around 7 p.m. when the flashing lights and whistling began. When the excitement died down, Rzybczynski realized she had won the $325,475.66 jackpot – the largest single win at the Fort Erie Slots. (more…)

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City makes a bid to become Hockeyville
Posted By JENNIFER PELLEGRINI

Last spring, Niagara Falls resident Becky Puddicombe mobilized citizens to show their civic pride in having the city named one of Canada’s wonders in a contest on CBC Radio.

This winter, city leaders hope residents will revive the energy shown to boost the city’s profile by banding together to name Niagara Falls Canada’s Hockeyville.

The competition, co-sponsored by Kraft Canada, the CBC, the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Player’s Association, is about more than bragging rights. The winning community will host a pre-season NHL game, be showcased on CBC’s annual Hockeyville broadcast next fall and will receive $100,000 to remodel its arena. With a $34.5-million arena ready to break ground in 2008, the boost would be a great way to start off the New Year, said Niagara Falls city councillor Jim Diodati. (more…)

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Convention centre close to first hire
Posted By COREY LAROCQUE

The Niagara Convention and Civic Centre is creating its first new job.

A president and general manager should be on board early next year, says Dragan Matovic, the project’s director. The convention centre has been advertising the position across Canada and the United States for several weeks.

“We feel we’re taking small, incremental steps toward having the facility open (in 2010),” Matovic said. (more…)

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Cochrane could walk the falls in ’09
Posted By John Law, The Review

By JOHN LAW

Review Staff Writer

Famed wirewalker Jay Cochrane still wants to make Niagara Falls his retirement project, but a proposed walk across the river could be in the works for 2009 instead of next year.

After another summer spent performing in Niagara Falls – his third in six years – Cochrane was hopeful the Niagara Parks Commission would let him be the first man in more than a century to walk a wire across the falls. He pointed to the summer of 2008 for the event, which he predicted could attract a million people to the city. (more…)

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Rescue workers pull ‘Surfing Santa’ from Niagara River
Posted By JENNIFER PELLEGRINI

When Santa heads out onto Lake Erie for his 2008 pre-Christmas sail, he’d better file a surfing plan.

Fort Erie resident John Fulton – who has dressed up as Santa and windsurfed across the Niagara River to raise awareness for homelessness for the past 23 years – was plucked from the river Sunday morning, said Fort Erie acting fire Chief Keith German.

“He needs to let us know what he’s doing out there,” said German, who confirmed a rescue call was made to the fire department from the Canadian shore Sunday morning. “That way, we don’t have a scramble out there.” (more…)

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New bill proposes bilingual signs in tourism areas
Posted By JOHN ROBBINS

A provincial Liberal backbencher has introduced a private member’s bill, which, if enacted, would see English and French wording side-by-side on signs in areas operated by the Niagara Parks Commission.

Bill 21 would also require the conversion of signs at provincial parks and other major tourist attractions operated by the provincial government.

Jean-Marc Lalonde, MPP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell, a riding in eastern Ontario, says his bill isn’t primarily about language rights, but rather economics. (more…)