THUNDER BAY - The celebration of a historic milestone for Chippewa Park will have to wait one more year as uncertainty regarding the COVID-19 pandemic has halted plans this summer.
This July marks the 100th anniversary of the park opening and Friends of Chippewa Park were planning to hold a five-day family festival over the Civic Holiday.
“After considerable discussion and contemplation, the Friends of Chippewa Park decided to postpone the festival until the summer of 2022,” said Lorraine Lortie, president of Friends of Chippewa Park.
“We felt it would be irresponsible to hold an outdoor festival that could attract as many as 10,000 people when so many could still be susceptible to contracting COVID-19.”
Cathy Sawicki, vice president and co-chair of the 100th-anniversary committee, added that with park amenities not running, such as rides, as well as the cancellation of Sundays in the Park and Tuesday Night Jam Sessions, it was decided to hold off on the festival.
“With the park not being fully operational this summer it doesn’t make sense to hold a festival when the full features of Chippewa are not on display and available for celebrants,” she said.
“The continued closure of the Canada/U.S. border along with the travel restrictions within Canada and no indication on when these restrictions will be lifted will severely limit our ability to attract visitors to the park and festival,” added Linda Lafontaine, co-chair of 100th-anniversary committee.
“We want to be in a position to reintroduce the city, the park, and its features to a broad tourist audience who live within one day's drive.”
The family festival will now be held from July 28 to Aug. 1 in 2022 and fundraising will continue for the $500,000 to $600,000 budget for the festival.
“The Catch the Chippewa Ace lottery will continue for the next 15 months with all proceeds going to support the festival,” Lafontaine said. “The fact that the event will be delayed by a year gives us more time to fundraise and make it bigger and better.”
Lortie said Friends of Chippewa Park still plan to hold some kind of event on July 15 this summer to mark the actual anniversary when the park was first declared open 100 years ago.
“It’s been a difficult 15 months and this was something I was personally looking forward to,” she said.
“I was really hopeful things would be open and we could have this celebration because it would feel like a double celebration with the 100th anniversary and people being able to gather again. So it’s especially disappointing, but certainly, we need to be careful and we will make due for now and next year it will be bigger and better.”
