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I am not sure whether this should count as the last Tale of 2007 or the first Tale of 2008, I will leave that important decision up to the historical chronologists among us to figure it out because its subject matter is 2007 but it is being published in 2008.

Now, just in case you weren't in town for New Year's Eve, I will set the stage.

It was a little after nine and it was a dark and cold night. The moon hadn't risen yet and the temperature was dropping towards minus thirty but small groups of people were heading down to Frame Lake to watch the advertised fire works display put on by the city.

In the newspaper, in the city skyline news and on the website it was advertised to take place near the Ruth Inch Pool but as people gathered on the lake it soon became obvious that something was amiss and no one seemed to know what was happening.

Had the display been moved to the co-op side of the lake or maybe over to city hall? Maybe it had been moved to Back Bay or had it been canceled entirely? Some firework displays and New Year's Eve events in Europe had been canceled because of terrorist threats so maybe Yellowknife was under some sort of lock down and we just didn't know about it because of course nothing newsworthy gets covered locally during the holidays. Maybe someone had simply locked the fireworks away someplace and now they couldn't find the key.

Small groups and knots of people aimlessly wandered around Frame Lake in the cold and the dark, wondering what was happening or not happening and why.

Then shortly after 9.30 p.m. the display started. It was being set off near city hall and it turned out to be a very good display but as one person commented, once again the city managed to snatch defeat out of what should have been a victory by changing the location of the display at the last minute and not adequately informing the population of the change, or I would argue, even of the event itself.

After last year's fizzle of a display I wrote an article suggesting that the city hire or appoint an event organizer or coordinator to liven up city events a little. I think that suggestion still holds. If you are going to spend all that money on fireworks and put on a display, then it should be better advertised so that everyone in town knows it is going to happen. Then if you are going to change the location of the event, the public should be made aware of that change. A few people at access points to the lake with flashlights could have easily informed people of the changes.

Were arrangements made to bus seniors to the site and was there a warm up place for kids? Were people given any sort of souvenir of the event and were the people who set up and ran the display recognized and thanked adequately. At the end of the fireworks horns should have been blown and people should have been applauding and/or yelling Happy New Year.

Community events build a sense of community and make Yellowknife a better place, but somehow something seems to be lacking when the city puts them on. This is where the city needs some sort of event organizer to handle the details to actually make it an event, one that people participate in and remember fondly.

It was a great display of fire works but as a city event, it lacked cohesion and pizzazz.

- Walt Humphries is a well-known Yellowknife artist and prospector