Saturday, April 23rd is date for the 2016 RCAF Gala to be held in Hangar 1 at Southport. Southport's site manager of KF Aerospace Defence Program Peter Fedak says 2013 saw the last ball held.

2013 Gala"As per the 2013 ball, I was in the military as the commander at that point, and my intent was to reintroduce the local community to air force culture, customs, tradition and air force presence. At the time, Rotary president Jean-Marc Nadeau had said, 'Hey, there's no RCMP gala. Would we want that, and choose that for the banner?' So, it partnered up that way."

Fedak adds they thought to do it again this year, but differently.

"I said, 'Ok, let's do it out at Southport. We got one of the hangars to showcase. Hey, here's what's out there. And we can do it out in the hanger. We'll clear it out.' So, talking with Peggy May, Southport CEO, I said, 'Sure, we'll clear out the hangar, and we'll do that.' And then a lot of logistics came to be. So, as a committee, 'Ok, how do we do this? It's different.' Myself, I'm very comfortable with going ahead. I learned from some of the chief of defence staff, like Rick Hillier, you know. We just create that irreversible momentum, and then everything has to go along with it. So now, we have the tickets ready for sale."

He outlines some of the features.

Peter Fedak"We're going to have the RCAF Jet Stream band performing again -- a fantastic 30-piece orchestra that puts on a great show. They'll have a string quartet during dinner to play. Our guest speaker is General retired Ray Henault, who was the final base commander at Portage la Prairie, and was Manitoba born and raised. So, we are very excited to have him coming back. He's excited to come."

Fedak adds how they'll bring back that Gala experience.

"Up to 500 people. We'll have a fully catered, formal, white-glove-served meal with the full three courses, with some appetizers actually before, and port service. The same thing with the head table. Pipers marching in. We're going to keep that same gala experience that was in 2013, but we're going to do it in the hangar. So, it has some of those unique aspects to it. We're going to have four aircraft set up."

Tickets are $120 each, and you can save $20 on each ticket by purchasing a table of eight for $800 for a group.  55 tables are still available at this point.