There’s a new festival in town.
Bay Days will take over portions of downtown North Bay and the waterfront on the weekend of June 14 to 16.
The three-day event is being coordinated through community groups including Tourism North Bay, North Bay & District Chamber of Commerce, Downtown North Bay and Creative Industries.
The city is putting $10,000 into the pot to help fund the new North Bay festival.
“It’s a community-minded event, free admission and I am going to be basing this on how the community participates in this event to decide if we are going to increase the funding for it next year or not, or if the committee increases the activities or leaves it as it is,” said councillor Johanne Brousseau.
Steve Dreany, Director of Tourism North Bay, says he does not want people to look at this as Summer in the Park 2.0.
“This is not Summer in the Park, this is not the Heritage Festival, this is not anything else,” he said bluntly.
“However, we did recognize that there would probably be a void this year and all we are trying to do is come up with something which would potentially fill that void. But we also know that the community has asked for something that is local, that is grass roots, that is free. This is local, this is grass roots and this is free."
Dreany believes this is an event North Bay has been asking for.
“This is what the people of North Bay have said that they want,” he said.
“We hope that it will grow in the future into bigger and better things. What we are doing is hopefully giving people what they asked for and now it is in the hands of the people to show up and support.”
Events will feature live local entertainers on Friday night at the Kiwanis Band Shell. Downtown North Bay will be shut down for activities such as “Mayhem on Main,” put on by Cheapskates, along with local vendors and Gateway FanEX.
A Children’s Festival will take place at the Capitol Centre on the weekend as well, including various family orientated activities. On the waterfront there will be an inflatable park and a car show. On Sunday, there will also be beach events and a sand sculpture competition.
The event will take place two days after Armed Forces Day dominates the North Bay waterfront.
Dreany says in the future they would like the events to be closer together.
“We kind of used that as the genesis or the starting point from which we would work,” he said.
“Armed Forces Day that week is on a Wednesday so we are hoping it is moved closer to our opening next year maybe the Friday, and then we will just go on from there.”
Brousseau believes a smaller festival brings with it smaller risk compared to what can happen if the weather fails during a major festival like Summer in the Park.
"I want to see more eggs in the basket. If it rains all weekend then we are doomed, but if something happens in June then we have another chance of having a successful September," she said.
