The Olympic flame continued to light up Manitoba communities on Wednesday.

It's on day two of its five-day relay through the province, looping through the Interlake region, including Gimli, where Premier Greg Selinger took a turn carrying a torch.

The Olympic flame arrived in Manitoba on Tuesday and is passing through the province's Interlake region on Wednesday. (CBC)The Interlake circuit also included a visit to St. Laurent and Peguis First Nation, about 145 kilometres north of Winnipeg, where the flame was welcomed with cheers and applause and the torch was carried by several people of all ages.

The relay will briefly return to Winnipeg in the afternoon and on Thursday it will head west out of the city along Portage Avenue.

It will then dip south into Winkler and Morden then turn back north to arrive in Portage la Prairie where an evening community celebration is planned.

From there, it will head out on Jan. 8 to Dakota Tipi First Nation and on to Neepawa and Minnedosa then to Brandon for another evening community celebration.

On Jan. 9 it will move on to the Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and Virden before crossing the border into Saskatchewan.

In all, the relay will visit 33 Manitoba communities.

Winnipeg celebration draws 20,000 people

On Tuesday, an estimated 20,000 people attended a jubilant Olympic torch celebration in Winnipeg at The Forks. The celebration capped the day's relay events, which started in the afternoon in the Transcona suburb on the city's eastern edge.