Turkey Diary #4: Golden City Days
Four days, three nights, and one unexplained Zucchini Grand Prix
Golden City Days photographs are from previous years and were shot by me (Shauna).
Next weekend Rossland is holding a Zucchini Grand Prix.
I don’t know what that means.
Are the zucchinis racing? Are people racing while carrying zucchinis? Have wheels been attached to vegetables? There is no explanation on the schedule, and I have deliberately resisted investigating further because I think the surprise may be part of the fun.
Golden City Days is one of those weekends when Rossland gets particularly good at being Rossland: a parade down Columbia Avenue, a family dance in the street, the Fall Fair, live music, flowers and garden produce lined up for judging, homemade things competing for ribbons, kids everywhere, free hot dogs — and this year, apparently, competitive zucchini.
I’ve photographed Golden City Days before. There is something wonderfully analogue about the whole thing: people make things, grow things, perform things, and turn up in person.
If I were coming to Rossland for the weekend, I’d arrive Thursday afternoon and give myself the whole thing: four days, three nights, and nowhere particularly important to be.
Thursday: arrive before everybody starts dancing
Check-in at the Wild Turkey is at 3.
September here is not quite autumn yet. The gardens are still carrying on — asters, coneflowers, roses, and hydrangeas currently approaching the size of basketballs — but the light has changed, the mornings have an edge to them, and a few leaves are beginning to give the game away.
I should probably count the maples around the house one of these days. There are enough of them that they seem to stand guard.
September settling in at The Wild Turkey Inn.
Drop your bags, make some coffee, sit in the garden for a while, or walk the three blocks into downtown and poke around.
That is one of my favourite things about staying here: you don’t really need a plan. Rossland is small enough to wander. Have dinner, browse whatever is still open, notice something you’ve walked past three times before, and head home when you feel like it.
The garden is still going strong: asters, rudbeckia and the first hints that summer is packing up.
If the weather is gorgeous, excellent.
If it rains, also excellent.
Wet streets, mountain cloud and an old house waiting up the hill with the kettle on are not exactly a hardship.
Friday: Rossland starts getting ideas
Friday can still be slow.
Sleep in. Wander downtown. Go for a walk. Take the afternoon as it comes.
By Friday evening the weekend starts spilling into the streets.
There’s live music, a costume contest at Rossland Beer Company, and the Family Dance on Third Avenue.
I have seen toddlers two-stepping in the street, somebody’s grandmother dancing in sensible shoes, teenagers pretending not to enjoy themselves, and mountains behind the whole thing.
You can join in, watch from the edges, wander between events, or simply follow whatever sounds interesting.
Saturday: maximum Rossland
Saturday is when Golden City Days really gets going.
You can start with pancakes at the firehall at 7:30, or, if syrup feels a little ambitious first thing in the morning, Madhu Studio is offering CommUNITY Yoga from 9 to 10.
The parade starts at 11, and then the day spills into the Fall Fair and the streets around it: live music, crafts, food, carnival games, gold digging for kids, the Golden City Fiddlers, the Trail Pipe Band, and whatever else happens to catch your attention.
The Fall Fair is one of my favourite parts to wander through. Flowers and garden produce are lined up for judging, alongside baking, preserves, crafts and all the other things people have quietly been making and growing at home.
There is something deeply satisfying about a community taking homemade things seriously for an afternoon.
Not in a precious way. In a this pie deserves consideration way.
Then there are the airbands.
My own airband career peaked in 1986, when I lip-synced to Prince’s Let’s Go Crazy in drama class. I still shudder slightly at the memory, so I have enormous respect for anyone willing to do this in public.
I’ve watched the Golden City Days airbands before, and commitment is definitely not the problem.
I can’t remember what song these girls performed, but they had the audience wrapped around their whiskers.
And at 3:45 p.m., we finally arrive at the Fall Fair Zucchini Grand Prix.
Those zucchinis have been running laps around my imagination since I first read the schedule. There is clearly only one solution now: I’m going to have to get myself to the arena on Saturday and see this thing in person.
By then you may be ready to sit down somewhere. Conveniently, Rossland Beer Company has live music again Saturday afternoon, and there are plenty of places around town to regroup before deciding whether you have another round of Golden City Days in you.
Sunday: one last lap
Sunday can be as ambitious or as lazy as you like.
The Golden City Grind starts at Black Jack at 9 a.m., with 10 km, 5 km and kids’ races.
You are welcome to participate.
I would probably be having coffee.
Checkout at the Wild Turkey is at 11, but there’s no rule saying you have to point the car downhill immediately.
Have one more wander through town. Stop for lunch. Visit the Rossland Museum, which is open for Golden City Days with activities, gold panning and free admission by donation.
And then, at around 2:30 p.m., there is a rather excellent way to finish the weekend.
The motorcycles of the annual West Kootenay Toy Run are expected to come down Columbia Avenue to collect donations.
After a weekend of parades, flowers, dancing, airbands, pancakes and competitive zucchini, a procession of motorcycles roaring through town feels like a suitably Rossland ending.
Golden City Days runs September 11–13, 2026.
If this sounds like your kind of weekend, The Wild Turkey Inn is three blocks from downtown and available either as your own private three-bedroom Victorian guesthouse, or as a private one-room stay with the guest kitchen, dining and sitting spaces all to yourself.
Book directly for two nights or more during eligible non-winter dates and use KOOTENAY10 to save 10%.
Check in Thursday. Stay three nights. See what happens to the zucchinis.
