On Saturday, local Sikh residents celebrated Vaisakhi at the Balzac Community Center.

Vaisakhi signifies the onset of the Vaisakh month and is celebrated as a joyful occasion for the spring harvest. It's also a day of commemoration for 1699, marking the birth of Sikhism as a unified faith.

Airdronian Sandip Singh a volunteer who helped set up the festivities talked about how everything went.

"More than 1,000 people came out to celebrate, there was food for everybody and plenty of entertainment throughout the day with children performing to our religious music."

It took multiple weeks to plan for this event because it was such an important day in the Sikh religion.

"Vaisakhi is an important day to the Sikh community and Christmas is to Christians."

Singh also mentioned local government officials, Airdrie East MLA Angela Pitt and Airdrie Councillor Tina Petrow were present for the major event.

PohotoPhoto of local residents within the hall.

Food was also collected to be donated to the Airdrie Food Bank.

According to Singh, there are over 650 Sikh families within Airdrie. One goal he has for this year is to host more events like this so everybody can gather and visit with each other.

One goal of the local Sikh community is to build a temple within Airdrie in the near future as it would be a great place to hold these events.

"We are working with the city and the government to find a good place for a temple."

Just recently, Singh, who is also a member of the Calgary Guru Nanak Free Kitchen provided free food to Airdronians in need.

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