Live Active Leisure turned the clocks back at the weekend to mark its golden anniversary.
The organisation, responsible for delivering sports and activities across Perthshire, celebrated 50 years in Perth with a spectacular stunt show at the Bell’s Sports Centre.
Hundreds flocked to the North Inch complex for a series of displays by professional mountain bike trials rider Danny MacAskill.
The show, titled the Drop and Roll Tour, was booked for the celebrations after going down a storm with fans across Europe.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5nGm-c21X-I%3Frel%3D0
Perth and Kinross Council, which donated £10,000 of common good cash to the anniversary events, said Danny’s appearance would deliver an economic boost to the city.
As part of the celebrations, Live Active bosses rolled back their prices to 1965 levels.
Adults paid just 50p to use facilities across the Perthshire and Kinross patch.
Live Active was formed in October 1965 and originally went under the title Bell’s Sports Centre (Perth) Ltd.
The creation of the sports centre was the group’s first major project.
It received backing from the Gannochy Trust and the centre was named after its founder Arthur Kinmond Bell.
However, the centre’s grand opening did not go according to plan.
A basketball match between Great Britain and West Germany was scheduled for opening day on March 24 1968, but just days earlier the roof caught fire, forcing organisers to push back the launch date by a further six months.
The centre finally opened its doors on October 20 with a special basketball game featuring Scotland’s top four sides. Bell’s opened to the public a few days later on November 11.
An indoor running track was added in the 1970s. At the time, it was only the second of its kind in Britain.
In 1977, the Queen paid a visit as part of her silver jubilee celebrations and planted a tree, marking 10 years since the foundations were laid.
The new Leisure Pool on Glasgow Road opened with much fanfare in 1988 and the Bell’s Sport Centre (Perth) Ltd became Perth and Kinross Recreational Facilities Ltd.
The group was renamed Live Active Leisure in 2010.