Announcements:
David Barth confirmed all arrangements have been finalized for the School Build in Honduras; refer to emails from David to the club for additional info and registration.
50/50: The pot is up to $151 and Jarius Mauch and Mac Graham failed to find the black marble. Mac tried a second time with John Rose’s ticket and missed again leaving the pot to grow!
Guest Speaker:
John Ralston
Co-Founder of Riverfest Elora Music Festival.
John co-founded the Riverfest Elora Music Festival in 2009 with Co-Founder Marilyn Coop which started out as a small back-yard Music Festival attracting only about 750 people for the first two years.
Marilyn passed away before the third year which put a significant dent in planning and organizing resulting in attendance by only about 200 people in the third year but since then the whole community got behind the project resulting in attendance climbing to about 15,000 people by 2014 and up to about 17,500 people in 2016.
John credits the enormous amount of artistic talent and community support in and around Elora with the ongoing success (a population of only 3,500 people). The festival has become an massive tourism generator resulting in huge economic boosts to local businesses.
Elora is a deeply artistic community with the Elora Festival (separate event from Riverfest) operating for over 30 years and now cooperating and working together.
This year, the event runs from August 18 through August 20 and, as is it’s history, features a wide and eclectic range of musical styles and performers.
The event takes place at Bissel park in Elora which is an 11 acre site adjacent to and overlooking the Grand River and continues into the evenings at “after hours” pub venues in the village. It attracts canoe-ists to the River to watch and listen, too !
Parking and accommodation logistics are a challenge but the Festival organizes shuttle services from Guelph, Fergus, Hamilton, Kitchener and even Toronto.
The event is a “packaged water free” event acknowledging and supporting the Wellington Water Watchers movement that protests the taking of ground water in the area for commercial purposes. It is also a fully licensed event; bring your own beer mug or purchase on site for re-filling!
The event needs about 450 volunteers; still about 90 needed for this year’s event.
