‘Ridgeway is back, baby’: Ridgefest revival gives BIA a fresh start

When Rob Faragalli looked out from the stage in Ridgeway’s village square Saturday night, he summed up the weekend in four words.

“Ridgeway is back, baby,” he told the crowd.

The three-day Ridgefest returned to downtown Ridgeway July 10 to 12, the first major event for the new Ridgeway Business Improvement Area (BIA) board. The board formed April 27, and weeks later a town audit revealed the organization owed the Town of Fort Erie about $25,000 after years of drawing down its reserves.

Fort Erie council approved a loan covering that amount on July 8, two days before the festival opened, along with a three-year repayment plan. Council called the arrangement an exception, since BIAs are not supposed to carry debt.

Faragalli, the BIA’s chair, told Fort Erie Radio the town’s approach let the board fix its books without punishing the village.

“They came up with a plan that wouldn’t crush the village financially, but would also achieve what we needed to do to fix the situation and repay that money,” he said.

With the finances settled, he said, the board turned to winning back residents–and last weekend showed him it was working.

“The weekend came, and it was like, ‘Holy mackerel!’ This is beyond anything that, even in my wildest imagination, I couldn’t expect the level of support that actually showed up,” he said.

Megan Winchur, a BIA organizer and lifelong Ridgeway resident, said the board went straight from its first meeting into festival planning.

“We’ve just been saying, ‘Ridgefest, let’s get this going, let’s build the hype, let’s generate some revenue so we can have future events,'” she said.

The festival was largely self-funded through sponsorships and vendor revenue, Winchur said. More than 70 vendors and about 10 food operations took part.

Sponsors covered most of the children’s programming, including a trackless train, face painting, crafts and a magic show.

The farmers’ market and the car show both ran Saturday on Ridge Road. On Sunday, the kid zone grew into a full family day, with a pony ride, a community craft wall, a pizza eating contest, a french fry eating contest and an appearance by Fluffy the Clown.

Winchur responded to some online criticism that followed after news of the BIA’s deficit.

“I can’t speak on what happened in the past, but we’re going to make it right and we’re going to do it right and we’re going to bring everyone together,” she said. “It was a labour of love. I love my community. I grew up here, and I came back to raise my children because this is a beautiful place to raise a family.”

Volunteers from local groups and area high schools helped run the festival. Chelsea Hearty, a BIA volunteer who also represents Courage Cookies, said a few people had to cancel at the last minute, but the response impressed her.

“Coming from Toronto, it was a night-and-day difference,” she said.

Ridgefest wrapped up the same weekend a fatal shooting at Toronto’s Salsa on St. Clair festival left two people dead and renewed questions about safety at street festivals across the province. Ridgeway’s weekend passed without incident.

Faragalli said the board is already looking past Ridgefest. The village is missing banners and lights, he said, and the BIA needs to raise money before its fall and winter events–community trick-or-treating on October 30 and Christmas on the Ridge on December 11.

He said the community, more than tourism, will decide whether it works.

“Tourists are only here for a couple months, and the rest of the year, it’s just us and our neighbours. We can’t do it without the people that are here,” he said. “This is just the first weekend in the rebuilding of this community we have–the village.”

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