Fort Erie’s Friendship Festival cancelled for a second time

The revived Friendship Festival in Fort Erie has been cancelled for a second time this summer after roughly half its vendors withdrew, and organizer Wyatt Deschamps says the full event will now wait until next year.

Deschamps says a scaled-down version of the festival will go ahead October 3 at the Canadian Tire property on Garrison Road.

The festival had been scheduled for Friday along Garrison Road. It was first postponed in July, when wildfire smoke from northwestern Ontario pushed the region’s air quality to high-risk levels two days before opening.

Deschamps told Fort Erie Radio that public health took longer than expected to approve the rescheduled date, leaving him about seven days to advertise it.

He says the short window made vendors nervous. About half of them booked a competing vendor market in Markham held the same day, and most of the remaining vendors then backed out as well.

“I am still determined to get this done and out there for everybody,” Deschamps said.

Fort Erie Festivals, the volunteer group supporting the event, advised Deschamps to hold the full festival next year because of the repeated setbacks. He agreed, but said he will organize the October event on his own “so the community saw something to look forward to.”

The October festival will carry the same name and format on a much smaller site. The summer version was planned to stretch about five kilometres along Garrison Road, while the fall event will be limited to the Canadian Tire location.

Deschamps says he lost some money on the cancellation.

“It’s manageable, but I mean it is a little frustrating,” he said.

He says everything was in place before the July date, including permits, signs, custom badges and pullover shirts, when the smoke arrived.

“Maybe that’s just Mother Nature telling us wait till next year,” he said.

The original Friendship Festival began as a binational Canada Day celebration with Buffalo, N.Y., and ran for 32 years before its board cancelled it in January 2020. The board cited years of declining bingo revenue and the loss of sponsorship money after the town’s slots facility closed in 2012.

Deschamps revived the festival this year as a small, locally run event with free vendor spots.

He says official details for the October 3 event have not been posted yet, but the date is confirmed. The full Garrison Road festival is expected to return next summer.

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