Frontenac_heritage_festival

Jeff Green | Feb 15, 2007

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Frontenac Heritage Festivalby Jeff Green

Central Frontenac will come alive next weekend at the first annual Frontenac Heritage Festival.

The festival was designed to coincide with a gathering of sign makers, called a Letterheads event, in Sharbot Lake that will result in the production of two murals for the Central Frontenac Mural Project.

The festival will start with preview event, a free skate at the North Frontenac Arena this coming Sunday, February 18th, between 1 and 2:20 pm. Organisers are hoping that figure skater David Struthers will be on hand to do a short exhibition skate on Sunday as well.

Events will kick off in earnest on Thursday at several locations along Road 38, including the Piccadilly Hall, where heritage craft displays and demonstrations will take place between 10 am and 4 pm from Thursday, Feb 22nd until Saturday the 24th. Crafts include: paper and paper crafts, herbs and herbal crafts, gourd craft, rug hooking, wood carving, punched tin, basketry and knitting and weaving.

The official opening of the festival will take place in the North Frontenac Telephone Company building at 11:00 am on Thursday, where a heritage quilt show will take place throughout the festival.

The festival headquarters will be the United Church hall on Elizabeth Street . Information will be available about all the activities at that location. On Thursday, there will also be a church lunch available at that location, as well as a paddle display, a display from the Frontenac Addington Trappers and a maquette of Sharbot Lake .

The Letterheads event, dubbed February Fever, will be ongoing at the Oso Hall, and the public is welcome to check on the sign makers’ progress throughout the weekend.

On Friday morning a pancake breakfast will take place at Sharbot Lake High School between 7 and 8:30 am. Events will be ongoing at the United Church in Sharbot Lake and Piccadily Hall throughout the day. On Friday night, a square dance is scheduled for St. James Major Church in Sharbot Lake .

Saturday will be the busiest day of the festival. The Snow Rodeo will take place at the new Sharbot Lake Fire Hall (see article on page 6), First Nations Food & Fun will run from 10-4 at St. James Church, and there will be a puppet show at 11:00 at that location as well.

In addition to the ongoing events at the Sharbot Lake United Church and the Piccadilly Hall, Land O’Lakes Kitchen music, a program of local entertainment, will be featured at Sunsets Restaurant.

These are only some of the events that will make up the festival. There will also be a photo contest, as well as a Snow Sculpture Competition, which opens on Feb 18. Build your sculpture at home and call 613-279-3731 to register your entry.

Chief organiser Janet Gutowski said, “We are hoping we have good participation, that the community enjoys it, that it will be the start of recognising that our community can be lively and vital in the winter time as well.”

Brochures are available throughout the region. (Please note: there are two errors in the brochure. The puppet show is erroneously listed for Thursday. It will actually take place on Saturday at St. James Church, 11:00 am. The Heritage Quilt show, which is only listed on Thursday’s program, will be ongoing throughout the weekend.