Shaun Majumder ready to host The Gathering
August festival will celebrate Burlington with music, food and fire
First came the greenhouse. Now comes the food. Actor/comedian Shaun Majumder and the community of Burlington are holding The Gathering, the first annual festival of fire, food and music, in the town Aug. 24-26.
Majumder has a well-known vision of revitalization and tourism for Burlington, his hometown, and the establishment of the greenhouse came as part of that project. Built on a plot of land in the centre of the town and called Hummock View Greens, the greenhouse was originally intended to be a source of fresh vegetables for a high-end, ecoluxe manor and cabins Majumder plans to build. Instead, it’s a community greenhouse for area residents to use.
Majumder and his team worked with residents in April to plant vegetables, herbs and flowers in the greenhouse, and the results of their labour have started coming fast.
“It’s been popping out vegetables: onions, radishes, kale, lettuces,” Majumder told The Telegram.
“That last time I was there was about a month ago, and it was incredible, just blowing up inside the greenhouse. I had my first meal of mustard greens when I was home, and it was so delicious. I think it’s kind of like fresh fish — when you cut something and you eat it a half an hour later, the flavour is so different than if it sits on a shelf or a truck for a while. Man, it was good.”
As a celebration of the greenhouse — and the community — The Gathering will feature musical performances by Sherman Downey as well as members of Hey Rosetta! and The Once, among others yet to be announced, in an intimate-type setting, “a kind of cross between a songwriters’ circle and a campfire jam,” Majumder explained.
“I don’t want it to have any boundaries,” he added, saying he was looking forward to seeing the professional musicians and locals jamming together. “I want it to have a real kitchen party feel.”
The music will be paired with food events, with meals prepared by local chefs Todd Perrin and Steve Vardy and brothers Jacob and Lucas Sharkey Pearce of Toronto using ingredients from Hummock View Greens. The chefs will set up food stations on the festival grounds, cooking with local residents.
The three-day event will also host discussions on topics such as working with greenhouse vegetables, seed saving, preservation techniques for protein and produce, cooking methods, and health topics around vegetables and herbs.
Off-site activities, such as hikes and boat tours, are also in the works.
“I want this to be something that raises money for the overall project, the community fund, and it’s going to be unique,” Majumder said.
“This is why I’m doing this project in the first place; to bring as many people to Burlington, Middle Arm and Smith’s Harbour as possible and share this with them.”
The festival will be featured on the Season 1 finale of Majumder’s “Majumder Manor” project, a show that will air on the W Network about his effort to breathe more life into his hometown on the Baie Verte Peninsula. The project experienced a setback when Majumder and his team presented their business plan to the provincial government, which pointed out some holes. Majumder’s plan was for a five-room inn; the government suggested about a dozen rooms would be needed for it to be successful.
The plan now is to build cabins before the manor is constructed, but Majumder and his people are having a hard time finding land for them in Burlington.
For now, Hummock View Greens — the name chosen after Majumder took suggestions from community members, narrowed down the choices and went doorto-door with his iPad, doing a poll to decide the winner — is the main focus, he said. His team held a farmer’s market a couple weeks ago, and has started selling some of the produce.
The Gathering will be a paywhat-you-feel event, where people can choose their price based on the experience they had.
“I’m not saying it’s free, but what’s the fee? It’s what they feel the experience was worth,” Majumder explained.
More information on The Gathering is available online at thegatherinburlington.tumblr.com or by following @burlgathering on Twitter.