14 hours Ago By [email protected] (Allan Benner)
Dorian Anderson hopes more people will be able to enjoy Niagara Grape and Wine Festival’s signature events during a “supersized” weekend, while also getting enhanced safety. “There are certainly a lot of changes this year,” said Anderson, the festival’s executive director. Although festival activities are happening throughout September, such as winery and vineyard tours, Anderson said many of the signature events are now scheduled for the last weekend of the month.
“We decided last year after doing a lot of research and looking into everything that spreading the festival out over two weekends wasn’t really achieving what we wanted to achieve,” Anderson said. After reviewing attendance records, she said, organizers found 75 per cent of people only visited the festival during the weekend of the Grande Parade. “We thought, if that’s the case, then sort of repeating the same programming for two weeks — which is essentially what we were doing — wasn’t the best way to celebrate,” Anderson said.
“We’re moving all the (festival) favourites into a single weekend.” She said it also serves as more of a “homecoming” for former St. Catharines residents who may be returning for the festival.
“The supersizing of (events at) Montebello Park is something I’m excited about,” Anderson said. Park events start Thursday, Sept. 26, with a new addition to the festival — the Rock the Park concert, which will feature Crash Test Dummies and Kim Mitchell.
Advance tickets for the show are being sold for $10 each, subsidized by an Experience Ontario grant. The ticket prices also include a $5 donation to Community Care of St. Catharines and Thorold.
The Mayor’s Invitational Grape Stomp — normally held on the first weekend of the festival — is Friday, Sept. 27, at 5 p.m.
; and the Pied Piper Parade around Montebello Park — long held a week before the Grande Parade — has been moved to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept.
29, to wrap up the festival. The Grande Parade starts at 11 a.m.
on Saturday, Sept. 28, in downtown St. Catharines.
The Niagara Grape and Wine Festival Grande Parade — the 2023 event is shown — and the Pied Piper Parade will be held on the same weekend. “We thought by putting the events all in one weekend, people that are coming in from out of town can see everything in the festival and make a bit of a longer weekend, but enjoy all of the aspects of it,” Anderson said. She said there will be other “cool stuff” happening, too.
She said FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre has scheduled country band High Valley for a 7:30 p.m. concert this Friday that features a pre-show wine and line dancing party in Robertson Theatre.
The festival is also bringing back the Event in the Tent on Friday, being organized as a fundraiser also for Community Care. It starts in the lower parking lot behind the PAC at 7 p.m.
, with Nik and the Nice Guys performing. The tent will take up the entire lot, Anderson said. Meanwhile, changes have been implemented to help ensure the safety of festivalgoers, particularly children.
“Because we have so many people we’re anticipating coming to Montebello Park this year, the park is going to be a 17-plus venue starting at 6 p.m. on all nights,” she said.
“We’re doing that just because we’re expecting a lot more people and we just want to make sure it’s safe for everybody.” Anderson said organizers chose to allow people as young as 17 to remain at the park to accommodate the youngest Brock University and Niagara College students. “We want them to be able to enjoy the event, even if they can’t drink.
” She said “very clear signs” about the age limit will be posted in the park, while event staff will let families with children know about it, too. “We found that in the evening at our events, they are so condensed and congested with people that we’ve had issues with kids getting separated from their parents in the past,” Anderson said. “As soon as it gets dark, that’s when we figured it’s appropriate to have the kids head home and the parents come back and have some fun.
” More information about Niagara Grape and Wine Festival events can be found at niagarawinefestival.com ..
