Organizers say this year’s RiverFolk Music and Art Festival will be bigger and better than ever.
Formerly known simply as the Fergus Art Walk, the June 26 event will celebrate its third year with an expanded musical component as well as an outdoor movie and family fun night.
“The idea was to make it a bigger event with more energy,” said Roxanne Beale, chair of the event committee for the BIA, which annually organizes the art walk.
St. Andrew Street in downtown Fergus will be closed as usual for the event, which runs from 10 am to 8pm, and will offer local artists from throughout Wellington County and beyond an opportunity to showcase and sell their work.
From 1 to 8pm, on a stage set up in front of the post office, the musical component of the festival will begin. Beale said organizers are hoping those coming for the art will discover and enjoy the music – and vice versa.
“We just wanted to turn it into a more well-rounded festival,” she said.
Another new addition is a movie and family fun night at the corner of Gowrie and St. Andrew Street, sponsored by Cherryhill Entertainment.
Starting at 6pm children and families can enjoy a clown, balloon artist and children’s fashion show (put on by Big Monkey Little Monkey). The Diary of a Wimpy Kid will be shown at dark, and locals are encouraged to bring their lawn chairs for the movie.
Some of the musicians featured in the festival will include:
– Terry Golletz, who has hosted the Fergus Tuesday night jam at Delainey’s for the last 10 years, at 1pm with Adam Shaw, Julie Corey, Peter Hillam and Jim Galloway;
– Andy Robillard, of Fergus, who hosted the monthly blues jam at the Old Copper Kettle before becoming a regular at the Fergus Tuesday night jam, at 2pm;
– Kitchener-Waterloo band Two Twenty Two, which placed second in the Cambridge Songwriting Competition, at 3pm;
– Elmira’s Tricia Brubacher, who performs a blend of folk, rock and blues on guitar, at 4pm;
– Richard Burnett, of Fergus, who has completed his first full-length CD, Glad I’m Gone, at 5pm;
– the Peter Mandic Band, led by Fergus singer-songwriter Peter Mandic, whose fourth CD is due to be released in the fall, at 6pm; and
– feature performer Wendell Ferguson, who has won nine Canadian Country Music Awards, an Ontario Country Performers and Fans Association Lifetime Musician Award and was twice nominated for a Juno, at 7pm.
