Most of Canada gets a 3-day long weekend in August but not St. John's

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

Thatdecision will be based entirely on the weather.

"There's a lot of pressure," saysChris Neary, whose recommendationon 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 aheador be postponed.

There's a general sense of flirting with disaster, that's always fun.- Sandy May

He thenpresents 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.

• The biggest game of chance in town: The origins of regatta roulette

Bars and bands capitalize on people playing regatta roulette, drinking until the wee hours of the morningand hoping for good weather, so they don'twind up going to workthe next dayhung overand 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 aheadin St. John's.

Planning nightmare

Regatta Day isa municipal holidayregulated 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 goabout their businessas 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'sbecome 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 regattais 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 foundthat 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 saidthe tradition is still important and that it wouldbe 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 friendswho never miss a regatta since the television came in."

When the race goes ahead, upwardof 50,000 people head to the lake. This year, there are 100 rowing teams from all overthe world signed up tocompete in 23 different races over the day.

Following a long-standing regatta tradition, booths spring up along both sides of the lakehousing 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 $1rides to QuidiVidi 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, buta headache for scheduling.

"Ifit 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 shopsclosed 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 thebiggest 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?"