Organizers are expecting a poultry turnout for this Sunday’s turkey curling contest in Yellowknife.
Members of the Long John Jamboree will stage the event from 1pm till 3pm on the public skating rink near City Hall.
You don’t have to bring your own bird.
The rules are much as you would expect: curling, but with frozen turkeys instead of rocks. There will be no sweeping, so your feel for the turkey will be tested to its limit.
Organizers say they are prepared for fowl play.
“We’re going to ask people to slide frozen turkeys toward marks on the ice and play for fun, trying to knock turkeys out of the way,” said the Long John Jamboree’s president, Janet Pacey.
“It’s sort-of a throwback game from back in the day at Caribou Carnival,” she added, referring to the festival that predated the Long John Jamboree in Yellowknife.
“It’s a play-it-by-ear game. But we’re going to pretend that we know how to play curling.”
While rarely sighted north of 60, turkey curling seems to be a more common bird farther south.
Laramie, Wyoming, has an annual turkey curling tournament, while an Irish pub in New York state gobbled up the idea in March last year.
