Reimagined Friendship Festival rescheduled for August 14
The Friendship Festival in Fort Erie will now open on August 14, a month after wildfire smoke forced Garrison Road business owners to call off the revived event two days before its July date.
Wyatt Deschamps, event organizer, told Fort Erie Radio the festival will run that Friday from 3 to 8 p.m. across several sites along Garrison Road. Business owners are staging it themselves with support from Fort Erie Festivals and little formal funding.
Deschamps postponed the July event on the Wednesday evening before it was to begin, as smoke from wildfires in northwestern Ontario pushed Fort Erie’s air quality to high-risk levels.
“We apologize and are heartbroken to provide you with this news,” Deschamps wrote at the time. He said the delay would give the group room to expand the festival to more locations.
Environment Canada issued a high-impact air quality warning for southern Niagara that morning. Air Quality Ontario’s health index put the region at 9 out of 10 and advised residents to reschedule outdoor events.
Deschamps said the event will look nothing like the old Friendship Festival, which ran on major sponsorships.
“This is us bringing this back from baseline, how it started originally,” said Deschamps. “Bring it back small, bring it back local. We’re going to highlight all of our local people and see where this brings us next year.”
The original Friendship Festival began as a binational Canada Day celebration with Buffalo and ran 32 years before its board cancelled it in January 2020. Bingo revenue had fallen for years, and sponsorship money tied to the town’s slots facility disappeared when the slots closed in 2012.
Deschamps said vendors stopped coming as table prices climbed to cover the lost funding.
Deschamps ran a smaller community event at Garrison Place last year that drew about 600 to 700 people. He said Mayor Wayne Redekop wanted this year’s version expanded along Garrison Road.
The Jackson Sheridan Band opens the music at 3 p.m., followed by an Alice Cooper tribute at 6 and Mike Lennox at 7:15. Niagara Music Awards hosts Pat Porter and JJ Nash will emcee, with a DJ and buskers between band setups. CHCH, Cogeco, Long and McQuade and the Niagara Music Awards sponsor the music lineup.
Free vendor spots let startups and businesses still recovering from COVID-19 keep all the revenue they earn, Deschamps said.
“Most places, even Ridgefest, they charge for tables,” said Deschamps. “But here, we just say, come, set up, have fun.”
No American businesses will take part this year. Deschamps said cross-border tariffs and taxes would make it too costly for their vendors to sell here.
By Andrew Hawlitzky, Fort Erie Radio
