New Minas Festival promises benefits for whole community

By Kirk Starratt

THE ADVERTISER/NovaNewsNow.com

It all started last year with the “Light Up the Strip for Christmas” contest and has now evolved into a full-blown festival keying on community partnerships for a wide-range of benefits.

Stephen Bishop of Raymond James and New Minas Recreation director Vince Forrestall, who are partnering with the community to organize the events, are working hard to make the first annual Christmas festival a success. Bishop said it all started last year when he was organizing the “Light Up the Strip” contest for New Minas businesses and Forrestall expressed an interest in having the village get involved in an official capacity.

“Starting in the new year, we talked about how we could make it bigger and better and put the village on the map with a festival or event that could become a big draw for the community,” Bishop said. “The economic spin-off to the business community is huge.”

They decided to take existing Christmas events hosted by the village and combine them with an expanded lighting contest and other attractions to create the festival.

It all gets underway Saturday, Nov. 17 at 10 a.m. with the Santa Claus Parade. The “Flick the Switch” official kick-off to the commercial lighting contest takes place at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 24. Bishop said Nov. 24 is the deadline for entries. There will be a residential lighting contest, as well. Categories for both contests include Most Lights, Most Creative, Best Display and People’s Choice.

Vote for favorites

Bishop said he has already arranged for ballot boxes for the People’s Choice to be placed at Fritz’s, Valley Power Products, Wacky Wheatley’s, Jordan’s, Raymond James and the village office, with more locations likely to come. There will be a map of the village showing the location of official participants so members of the public can view the displays then vote for their favourites.

There will be a huge day of events at the County Fair Mall Saturday, Dec. 15. Awards will be presented for the business and residential lighting contests, although the light displays will stay up until Jan. 1.

The “It’s Getting Chili” chili cook-off takes place at the mall on Dec. 15. There will be a Children’s Gingerbread House Decorating Contest and Display and there will be a Children’s Winter Art Contest and Display.

Bishop said his vision for the art contest is to produce Christmas cards with the winning pieces that could be sold at New Minas businesses the following year. Proceeds could be used for a charitable cause to help children and families in need.

The Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony takes place at the Civic Centre at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 15, followed by the Children’s Christmas Party at the New Minas Fire Hall.

Presented concept

Forrestall said they’ve got the blessing of the village commission for the festival. They presented the concept to the village’s recreation advisory committee and it was well received. The village has provided a $5,000 budget this year. He said there would be challenges but they can overcome them and make the festival bigger and better next year, the 40th anniversary of the village.

He said the key for the village and the recreation department is to partner with the community to make the highly interactive festival a success. He envisions New Minas as being the place to go to see Christmas displays and enjoy family-oriented activities.

“The potential is there for this being the biggest festival New Minas has ever seen,” Forrestall said, pointing out that he thinks Bishop has done a great job rallying the support of the business community. They have to sell the idea of the festival to community partners and hope they’ll see the benefits. “I think the vision on the part of the partners is there.”

Bishop said he thinks they’ll need to form a committee for the festival next year because of the expanding scope of events. He hopes a nighttime parade of lights with an expanded route will be featured next year.

There will be large banners across the street at either end of the village promoting the festival, as well as at the intersection of Commercial Street with the Highway 101 Exit 12 access road. Smaller banners will be placed on utility poles. There are sponsorship opportunities available for local businesses in relation to the banners.

For more information, call 681-6577 or e-mail village.newminas@ns.sympatico.ca.