First ever Sackville Busker Festival kicks off Thursday for an event-filled weekend
It’s an action-packed weekend coming up in Sackville.
The Live Bait New Works Festival launched Wednesday and runs until August 15, with plays, readings, a book launch, and a concert in collaboration with the newly revived Tantramar Blues Society. The Tantramar Heritage Trust and the Town of Sackville have put together a roster of activities to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the arrival of Yorkshire Settlers in the region, promising to “explore the impacts, both good and bad” of the settlement. And to top it all off, there will be extra activity downtown as the first Sackville Busker Festival takes over Bridge Street between Main and Lorne, with performances starting Thursday evening and happening throughout the weekend.
Wendy Epworth is owner of Mel’s Tea Room and vice president of the downtown Sackville Business Improvement Area (BIA), which is spearheading the festival with some help from ACOA’s Rediscover Main Streets initiative. CHMA sat down with Epworth on Wednesday to hear more about the Buskers Festival and how it came to be.
Epworth says when word of funding for new events and festivals to help re-animate downtowns came down the line, she thought immediately of the Halifax International Buskers Festival. “It’s a great, longstanding festival, and I’ve enjoyed it,” says Epworth. So she reached out to see if something of a smaller scale could work in Sackville. “They sent me information about what a little festival would look like here,” says Epworth, and she put together a proposal for ACOA in the spring.… Continue