Get cracking
Summerside Lobster Festival begins Monday
The Summerside Lobster Festival begins Monday, the second year for the rebranded week of activities.
The festival, which was known as the Summerside Lobster Carnival for many decades before, was taken over by the City of Summerside in 2013.
Now with almost two years under his belt in the position, executive director Don Quarles says a lot of the groundwork that was accomplished last year is coming to fruition for the 2015 festival and beyond.
“We’ve got some great support and I think we’re building into something much bigger,” said Quarles
This year’s event, which runs from July 20 to 25, will be almost exclusively focused on the downtown of the city, especially Green’s Shore.
“The focus of the event is obviously to push everything to Green’s Shore and the waterfront. Something that came out of our strategic planning was that the waterfront is one of our No. 1 assets and doing more on our waterfront is critical. I think the waterfront site this year will be something our community can be proud of,” said JP Desrosiers, director of community services, during a recent city council meeting.
The concert tent, stage, revived midway and many of the events will be held at Green’s Shore.
This year’s festival will also include the Tri-Lobster Triathlon, a world championship qualifier and the only one of its kind in Atlantic Canada, which begins Sunday.
The event has also partnered with various cultural groups to hold themed activity days through the week, including: Celtic day, Mi’kmaq day and Acadian day.
Celebrity chef Matt Dean Pettit, who owns three Rock Lobster restaurants in Toronto, appears on the Food Network and has a lobster cookbook in publication.
Pettit will be doing a number of events in the city, including book signings and doing some lobster culinary demonstrations in partnerships with local chefs.
This year’s parade is being organized by Generation XX and will be the first event of the festival, starting at 1 p.m. on Monday.
Some partnership events, which are being held on or around the same week of the Lobster Festival include: the DiverseCity Festival on July 25, the SummerRide Bike Rally from July 24 to 26 and the Spirit of Chautauqua from July 29 to 31. Each of these events also has their own schedule of entertainment and activities.
There are events throughout the day, every day, of the festival and a complete list can be found online at: www.summersidelobsterfest.com.