Change blossoming for Rose Festival
New parade route and July cardboard boat race in spotlight
Welland will see a revamped Rose Festival this June, says event president Allen Bunyan.
“Days in the Park takes on a whole new appearance this year. We’ve moved the music back to the top of Chippawa Park and that allows for greater visibility and hopefully greater attendance,” Bunyan said during a launch event Monday at Welland Community Wellness Complex.
Giant FM 91.7 and Country 89, he said, is taking care of the music for the June 16 and 17 event in the park and will have wellknown, local musicians performing including Cory Cruise, Chelsea Crites Band, Heather Glabb and The Mandevilles.
Both the annual baby show and fireworks show will be held Saturday in the park.
A big change this year is a new parade route away from the downtown core.
“With the advent of Sunday transit in Welland we required a new parade route that didn’t interfere with that,” said Bunyan, speaking of the route on Niagara Street starting at Quaker Road and ending south at Thorold Road.
He said Niagara Street businesses have embraced the festival and route wholeheartedly and expects many will hold events before and after the parade passes by. There are also discussions underway, he said, with Seaway Mall.
Mayor Frank Campion said the new route was a choice made by the Rose Festival committee and added it is a chance to experiment.
“I hope it’s very successful,” Campion said, adding he always attends the parade.
The mayor said he looks forward to all of the events and said the Rose Festival, now in its 57th year, is a great community function that brings everyone together.
The Rose Festival starts Saturday, June 2, with the Coronation Ball, followed up by an art exhibition at Seaway Mall from Sunday, June 3, to Friday, June 8.
Erica Olsson, the festival’s second vice-president, said the
Coronation Ball will be held at Croatian National Home. Ttickets are on sale in the festival office at Seaway Mall.
Olsson was second princess in 2010 and became a volunteer last year.
“I decided I wanted a more prominent role … I have a lot more weight on my shoulders this year.”
A goal this year, she said, is to get more youth involved using social media and pulling in the younger generation.
She’s hoping youths will get involved with the festival’s one new event that actually falls outside of June, the month Rose Festival runs throughout.
It’s the Wally Mole Memorial Cardboard Boat Race and Mayors Picnic, to be held sometime in late July on the Welland International Flatwater Centre.
Organizers wanted warmer water temperatures, especially as cardboard boats can easily sink.
Campion has high hopes for the picnic and cardboard boat race.
“I’m really excited about it and participating in it … being on the canal for a different purpose,” he said.
Other Rose Festival events include the Sunday, June 17, kids fishing derby at the flatwater centre, off of Townline Road. It gets underway at 7 a.m., with fishing starting at 8 a.m. and open to children 15 and younger.
A street dance takes place Saturday, June 23, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. next to city hall with the Street Rebels and The Associates performing.
More information on the festival and all of the events taking place can be found at www.wellandrosefestival.on.ca.