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For the 125th year, Upper Peninsula firefighters will pick up their hoses and compete against other departments in the region. And for the first time since 2011, the UP Firefighters Tournament will be held in the Copper Country.
The three day event begins Thursday evening in Calumet Township when the Dress Parade steps off at 7:00pm on Red Jacket Road, followed by a street dance in the parking lot of the Colosseum at 8:00pm (music by Tom Katalin and Highway 41) and a Night Shirt Parade at 10:00pm to cap off the night.
Then the departments square off Friday morning at 9:00am in several competitions. Calumet Township Fire Department’s Dylan Boberg says they have a surprise for the other teams. “There’s a hose roll, a ladder race, a coupling race, and then we have a mystery race as well, which is usually a pretty fun one. Departments look forward to that one,” said Boberg. “It should be pretty good this year, our mystery race. Can’t leak anything yet but we went out of the box a little bit with ours. People might get wet.”
The Firefighter’s Ball with music by Marshall Law will be held at the Colosseum Friday night from 8:00pm to midnight (doors open at 7:30pm) with the awards presented at 10:30pm. It’s all in good fun and the participants look forward to spending this time together.
“It really brings in a lot of friendships, too,” Boberg said. “There’s people I’ve met from past tournaments that without these tournaments, I would have never met in my life. It’s really cool. It brings a lot of people together.”
The 125th annual UP Firefighters Tournament concludes with a Commercial Parade on Saturday at 11:00am and all of the events and competitions are open to the public.
