REGINA — Last summer, more than 60 boats floated across the dark waters of Pasqua Lake, their navigation lights glowing beneath exploding colours in the night sky as cheers and boat horns echoed across the Qu’Appelle Valley.
For organizer Regan Hinchcliffe, the moment felt bigger than fireworks.
It felt like a memory coming back to life.
“My summers since I was a very little boy have been spent at Pasqua Lake with my family,” Hinchcliffe said. “It is a big part of who I am.”
The growing event, known as the Light Up Pasqua Lake Fireworks Show, will return July 3 with organizers hoping to make the 2026 edition the largest yet. A GoFundMe campaign has now been launched with a goal of raising $3,000 for a larger fireworks package and expanded display.
But behind the event is a story that stretches back decades.
When Hinchcliffe was growing up in the 1990s, his grandfather — known in the family as Papa — would put on small fireworks shows from the family beachfront using simple gas-station fireworks while launching toy rockets into the summer sky.
Those nights became some of Hinchcliffe’s strongest childhood memories.
“As we all got older, the fireworks stopped, and then my Papa passed away,” he shared. “Later in life, I started bringing that tradition back for my own family. For me, it was a way to honour his legacy.”
What began as a private family tradition slowly started drawing attention from the lake itself.
One night after a small fireworks show, Hinchcliffe noticed a lone boat sitting out on the water with its lights glowing in the darkness.
“When the fireworks ended, they started blasting ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry,” he recalled. “I remember looking out at the lake that night and having a real vision for what this could become.”
The next year, about 20 boats showed up.
Last summer, more than 60 did.
Now organizers say the event has evolved into something much larger than a fireworks display. It has become a floating community gathering unlike almost anything else in Saskatchewan.
“What makes it unique is that it is purely a watch-from-the-lake show,” Hinchcliffe said. “People gather in their boats, anchor out on the lake, and watch from the water.”
The result is something cinematic: fireworks reflecting off the water, boats spread across the lake under the night sky, families wrapped in blankets, children watching from pontoon decks, and horns erupting after the finale.
“That creates a completely different feeling,” Hinchcliffe said. “You have the fireworks overhead, the reflections across the lake, and boat lights all around you. The Pasqua Lake community becomes part of the show.”
The event is supported by Regina Fireworks, which helps co-ordinate the growing display, while drone footage captured by Gabriel Hertz has helped showcase the scale of the event from above.
This year’s fundraising campaign has already gained momentum, raising $850 in its first week alone.
The goal is not just to fund a bigger show, but to establish a lasting summer tradition for the entire lake community.
“For one night of the year, people across the lake are connected by the same experience,” Hinchcliffe said. “Families, neighbours, visitors and friends gather in different boats, but they are all watching the same show together.”
As planning ramps up for July 3, Hinchcliffe says the adrenaline of lighting the fireworks himself still has not faded.
“Once it gets going, honestly, it is kind of a blur,” he said. “I am right beside very loud explosions and bright flashes the whole time. It is intense, but it is also a lot of fun.”
Still, even as the event grows larger every year, he says the heart of it remains exactly where it started — with family, memory and gratitude for the lake that shaped him.
Then came the line that captured why this fireworks show now means so much to so many people on Pasqua Lake.
“It takes something that started as a family tradition and turns it into a shared lake tradition for everyone.”
