Summer is in full swing. The air is warm, the sun has been shining, and everywhere I look I see folks enjoying the summer weather. From hikers I meet on the Georgian Trail, to the sail boats out on the bay, to the blissful aroma of a neighbour’s backyard barbeque, many are taking full advantage of all that summertime brings.
As we near the end of July, many are highly anticipating the return of Summerfest, a relatively new event for this community, and arguably the most fun summer event introduced in this municipality in many years.
For the third year in a row, Summerfest returns to downtown Meaford as well as the harbour area from August 2-4. The first two Summerfest events brought Meaford’s downtown core to life for a mid-summer festival created and organized by downtown businesswomen, and organizers are hoping to bring the same fun with this year’s event.
As I wrote on this page after last year’s Summerfest, “The Summerfest organizers did it again. The mid-summer festival organized by three downtown businesswomen last year returned for its second edition on Saturday of the Civic Holiday long weekend, and the large crowds who filled the downtown and waterfront area were a testament to the fact that Summerfest is already a much anticipated summer event in just its second year. It’s not easy to get a new community event off the ground. It is even more of a challenge to create and stage an event that people want to see return a year later, but Summerfest has clearly appealed to many who appreciate a mid-summer festival to liven things up.”
Not enough can be said about folks who dedicated their time and energy, and sometimes their own resources to getting a new event off the ground. To stage such an event requires regular citizens, in this case a handful of downtown business owners, to roll up their sleeves and get to work. All of our favourite events are created, organized, and driven by volunteers, people who love their community and want to create some fun for their neighbours and friends.
Sometimes a new event fails to draw crowds of any significance, but that can’t be said for the Summerfest event, which in its first two editions saw swarms of folks in our downtown area, visiting the shops, enjoying the sidewalk sales and other events taking place, and that fun extends to the harbour area, showcasing the beauty of this small municipality and the energy of its residents. I think that one of the keys to the success of the event in its first two years is that it is simple, it is fun, and there is no cost to simply attend and take it all in.
The amount of work put into the organization of the Summerfest event is no doubt enormous, but the impact of the event on the business district of this municipality has been clear: the event draws crowds, large crowds, and large crowds spend money, and in a small municipality, that is a very good thing indeed.
While Summerfest features a number of events and activities for all ages, from the sidewalk sale, to a dog parade, to watching artists add their creative flair to otherwise dreary doors leading into some of the buildings downtown, one of the most popular aspects has been the creation of fun rivalries between local restaurants which compete in the poutine competition. While I have never tried poutine myself, it just doesn’t appeal to me, I am well aware that it is extremely popular with many, and as I wrote after last year’s event, “Challenging restaurants to create their own take on the iconic dish is a bit of genius in my opinion. People love food of course, but they also love competition, and the poutine competition serves up both.”
This year’s Summerfest kicks off on Friday, August 2, with a movie under the stars. Organizers are encouraging attendees to dress up as their favourite Back to the Future character for a chance to win prizes. Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4 will be filled with a number of activities including a Jeep Invasion and canine water sports, along with performers, and of course food. There’s even a ’60s themed street dance planned for the Saturday night of Summerfest.
For those who love community events like Summerfest, there are more on the way, as the Labour Day long weekend’s Meaford & St. Vincent Fall Fair is fast approaching, as is the return of the Meaford International Film Festival later in September, and then of course the Scarecrow Invasion & Family Festival, so there are more community festivities on the way before the chill of winter returns.
The organizers of Summerfest should be applauded, and they have been, and will no doubt continue to be. The buzz on social media after last year’s event was one of appreciation, along with an excitement to see the event return again. When you have folks eagerly anticipating the next one, you know that the organizers have done something right.
For the first 17 years that I have lived in this municipality there had been no Summerfest, and now after two successful Summerfests, and a third just a week away, I can’t imagine Meaford not having this mid-summer festival. I hope that it becomes a staple in this community for many years to come.
Many thanks to the creators and organizers of Summerfest: your hard work and enthusiasm does not go unnoticed. And as I have also written in the past, it is just the sort of event that Meaford needed as we were coming out of the pandemic period, a time when we were frequently kept separated, when there were no public events to be found. As we have all learned from the pandemic experience, life is much more fulfilling when we can gather together as a community to celebrate something as simple as the summer season.
Summerfest is good for this community, it is good for local businesses, and it is a great way to showcase this municipality.
More information about this year’s Summerfest can be found on the Meaford Downtown Facebook page.
