The Niagara Wine Festival is strengthening its community roots. After spending a few years pursuing a more cosmopolitan crowd from outside Niagara, festival organizers have turned their attention to making the marquee event a real homecoming in St. Catharines.
Expect more local musical acts on stage at Montebello Park in September, and look for more of your neighbours walking in the popular annual grande parade.
Kimberly Hundertmark, the festival's interim director of events, said organizers are taking stock of what the festival means to Niagara and listening to calls from the community to bring it back to its roots.
Two years ago, many St.Cat h a r i n e s residents balked at beefed-up entry rules for the grande parade designed to make it more polished and ended up cutting out some local groups.
"When you look at it, it is a homecoming," said Hundertmark, the city's tourism and attractions manager who was brought in last month to organize this year's festival.
"There's a lot of people from out of town coming to it. But essentially the people that are in the cars (on parade day), and that are lining the parade route are people that have grown up here, people that live here. It just made sense to make it more local."
News Source : Niagara Wine Festival returns to its roots
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