Vendors and entertainers sought for Yarmouth Cultural Festival
Event to take place at Mariners Centre June 29
A Yarmouth event that hasn’t taken place for several years is being revived.
Scheduled for June 29, 2019, at the Mariners Centre, the Yarmouth Cultural Festival is being organized by a new entity – the Yarmouth Events Association, a non-profit organization with Candice Phibbs and Rick Allwright as two of the five directors.
The husband-and-wife team also own Mile East, an eventplanning business, with such successful events as the Spring Living Show, Yarmouth Craft Beer Festival, the Starlight Runway Run and others to its credit.
Phibbs and Allwright have great memories of the “culturally rich” area where they used to live, in Brampton, Ontario.
“It holds an annual festival called The Villages, with a lot of halls – the German Hall, the Hungarian Hall, the Polish Hall, the Ukrainian Hall,” says Phibbs.
A “passport” is issued for the four-day festival, allowing entry to interact and experience the dancing, foods and crafts of each culture.
Although the Yarmouth Cultural Festival won’t be as big as Brampton’s, some of these elements will be added to features from past Yarmouth festivals.
Ethnic dishes are an important part of the festival.
“We’re quite big foodies and we want it to be done right. Right from the get-go that was one of our priorities,” says Phibbs.
“We want to get the food vendors in, have food safety practices followed, and we plan to use our token system similar to the Craft Beer Festival,” she added.
Vendors will be able to set their prices and organizers plan on working with those who require assistance with menu costing.
The organizers are aiming for a “multi-cultural block party” with tables pushed together and a family-style neighbourhood atmosphere.
Entertainment will be provided by local performers, as well as dancers from other areas.