…Vankleek Hill has had no Canada Day celebrations for several years now, so if you want to celebrate Canada in Vankleek Hill, you go to the beach in L’Orignal.

Which is fine… L’Orignal does a good job with bouncy castles, a slip n’slide, and the beach. Then there’s usually a few bands before the fireworks.

Hawkesbury, on the other hand, has their Canada Day event at Confederation Park (the island). But, at least this year, it shuts down around 5pm, with their fireworks at 10pm. Which just seems like a long time to wait or, at least, a pain in the butt to walk to the island, walk back home at 5pm, then walk back to the island again.

…until relatively recently, Hawkesbury had a problem hosting medium to large events outdoors, because basically the options were the island — which has limited parking, and is just a little too far out of town to walk to — and Main Street’s Pioneer Park which, until recently, was derelict… at least the parts closest to the street were pretty barren.

But all of that has changed now… or, at least Pioneer Park has changed, events at the island are still a mess. Hawkesbury has put a lot of energy and time and cash into improving the Park. The Park has been cleaned up, re-sodded, they’ve added new concrete stairs, they’ve installed a mobility ramp, and planted trees. Now it’s capable of hosting a medium-level event like the three-day ‘Festival Multiculturel de Hawkesbury’ [link], which is in its third year now.

…and it’s free. Personally I think it’s a great event [link]. This was the first year I’ve gone — I went on Saturday, but it was raining and I can’t afford to get my camera wet. So I came back on the Sunday, and the weather was great.

I recognized none of the performers, but all of the ones I saw were really good. There were a couple who were basically doing karaoke, but that was okay. The crowd for the second stage was pretty small at first, but when the Main Stage opened I think there were 300-400 people in the park.

…I think, in the future, there might be a way to combine both the Hawkesbury Canada Day celebrations [link] and the Multicultural Festival. I think that would be an epic long weekend.

…anyway. This post has gotten far too long. If you’re up for it, click on a photo to get the carousel going. And don’t be afraid to leave a comment.