Photo by Matthew Hutchinson via flickr
Kingston Road in Birch Cliff will come alive on Saturday Sept. 19th with a street festival that will include food, live music, a mini-carnival, yard sale, bake sale and a variety of children’s activities.
The first ever “Birch Cliff Village Day Out” will take place from 10am – 3pm and involves many of the businesses, churches, restaurants and bars on Kingston Road, as well as Taylor Memorial Library and the Royal Canadian Legion.
The festival is the brainchild of professional photographer Sandy Robitaille, a long-time Birch Cliff resident with a lot of pride and passion for the community.
Robitaille said the neighborhood has some great organizations and businesses that regularly put on events and she thought it would be “amazing” to have everyone do something on the same day “so we can get our community out and walking”.
Improving walkability
Like many people, Robitaille wants to see a more vibrant Kingston Rd., with people from the neighborhood out walking and interacting.
“It’s quiet, it’s clean and it has friendly people,” Robitaille said. “We need to get people out walking about. The more people who are out walking, the better the businesses will do, the better the businesses do, we get more business, then we get more people out walking. That’s how that works.”
Activities are planned for the stretch of Kingston Rd. between Warden Ave. and Birchmount, which will be festooned with yellow balloons to give the street a festive look.
Guitarist/singer Darrell Ricketts will be providing live entertainment in front of Wimpy’s at 1pm and 3pm.
Children’s activities
There are also plenty of fun things for children to do including face painting and several craft stations.
At noon a bagpiper will lead children dressed in costumes along Kingston Rd. from Birchmount to Warden.
Robitaille said she’s been overwhelmed by the positive response from businesses and organizations
“Every business and church that I went to said “what can we do, this is terrific” and I think one of the reasons that happened was because it’s very grassroots,” Robitaille said.
Some venues are offering free food such as cake at the Legion and french fries at Busters. Others are planning to offer mini tastings for a nominal charge.
Birch Cliff Day Out will be happening, rain or shine.
