Festival of Small Halls coming to Frontenac County

Jeff Green | May 02, 2018

When the Festival of Small Halls started up in Ontario in the fall of 2014, it consisted of one performer, Nova Scotia’s Old Man Luedecke, and three halls, in Perth, Gananoque and Bloomfield. By the time the fourth edition rolled around, in 2017, there were 34 venues and performers from across the folk-roots spectrum including Ashley MacIsaac, Rose Cousins, Great Lake Swimmers and others.

But there were no venues in Frontenac County. They were close, in Bolingbroke, Maberly and McDonalds Corners, all part of the Frontenac News distribution area in western Lanark County, in Seeley’s Bay, and even in Tamworth, but not InFrontenac.

That is all changing this year. Among the new venues, which will now total over 40, are three in Frontenac County, the Grace Centre in Sydenham, the Golden Links Hall in Harrowsmith, and the Snow Road Community Centre. The festival runs in late September, and dates and performers at all of the halls will be announced in the early summer. The festival tends to provide a venue for local acts to open the evening, followed by national or international acts. It is supported by the company that runs the Ottawa Bluesfest and City Folk and is a not-for-profit venture.

One of the goals of the festival is to bring renowned musicians to smaller communities, and another is to celebrate the enduring charm and function of small halls in rural Ontario.

The festival website puts it this way: “Every small community has one: a treasured building that brings people together for town meetings, community dinners, bingo games, local theatre, book sales—and the list goes on. These buildings have rich cultural histories and countless stories to tell. No two are alike.”

The Frontenac County Halls that were chosen certainly fit that bill. The Grace Centre seemed doomed when the Grace United Church was closing, but thanks to the vision of the late Joan Cameron, the Southern Frontenac Community Services Board of Directors and Executive Director David Townsend, the church has been converted into a seniors’ centre and the chapel has become an arts and music venue, The Grace Centre. The Golden Links Hall in Harrowsmith actually burnt to the ground in 1972, and through the efforts of the local Oddfellows and Rebekah’s a new hall was built. And when it came time to hold a commemorative ball for Frontenac Counties 150th anniversary, it was hosted at the Golden Links Hall. The Snow Road Hall was under threat of closure a few years ago, when the late Mayor Bud Clayton mused about closing the lesser used halls and building a central hall for the township. The local community rallied around their hall, and haven’t looked back. It is now one of the busiest halls in the entire region, and has been upgraded several times, and has been hosting intimate concerts on a semi-regular basis.

It is this kind of history, and the enthusiasm of the people who use and foster these halls, that drew the Festival of Small Halls to them.

Stay tuned for more details about the 2018 concert series in a local hall near you.