The Ontario Festival of small Halls made a big splash in McDonalds Corners and Maberly last weekend, and all the rest of the concerts scheduled for Lanark and Renfrew Counties this soming weekend are sold out, including one at the ABC Hall in Bolingbroke featuring Bealoch and Tichborne fiddle whiz Jessica Wedden.

Taking its cue from similar events in Prince Edward Island and Australia, the organizers of City Folk in Ottawa sponsored a series of concert featuring nationally known roots musicians in some of the unique local halls in Eastern Ontario. In each case the major acts were paired with some of the best local musicians around.

On Saturday night (September 19) at the McDonalds Corners Agricultural Hall the Long Sault Trio (Linda Grenier – guitar- from Watson's Corners, Victor Maltby – fiddle - from Carleton Place and Dave Tilston – guitar - from Maberly) opened the show. Each of the three members of this band are songwriters, and in their show the sound varies from swing to bluegrass to celtic to all of the above. The trio has been playing together for several years and it shows in the smooth interplay they have developed and the serious speed they bring to some of their bluegrass and celtic inflected numbers. They set the stage well for Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys.

Gordie MacKeeman has a personal website called Crazylegs.ca and it did not take long to see why.

He started off the show by tapping at break neck speed, legs flying every which way or so it seemed, and then he started playing fiddle at the same time.

The Rhythm Boys, who all come from PEI, did not fade into the background either, taking turns singing and playing lead on guitar, double bass, drums and banjo. They performed a varied mix of styles just as the Long Sault Trio had, from Bluegrass to Celtic to Rockn'roll. The dance floor was active from the start of the set, which the band appreciated, and the music never wavered in its dynamism throughout. MacKeeman has an infectious, mischievous energy, and great skill with the fiddle. There was no let up right to the end of the set.

The Festival of Small Halls concert at the Maberly Hall the next afternoon, September 20, was sold out.

It opened with The Unspoken Rests, an eight member youth ensemble made up of players aged 8-16, all members of the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra and led by Cindy McCall. McCall said she formed the group “as a way to challenge the younger students in the orchestra and give them a chance to play faster, tighter and with more harmonies in a smaller ensemble setting.” The group enchanted the audience with their a line up that opened with “Swinging on the Gate” and included the famous Ottawa Valley tune “Pig Alley Rip” and “St. Anne's Reel”. The group received a thunderous, heart felt and well deserved standing ovation following their set, which no doubt may have inspired a few listeners to answer McCall's recent advertisement for a new “absolute beginner” fiddling group, which will have a maximum of 10 players and will start up on October 21. Call Cindy at 613-278-2448 or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

The concert then continued with the East Pointers, the full throttle traditional PEI Celtic trio comprised of fiddle player Tim Chaisson, banjoist Koady Chaisson and guitarist Jake Charron, who also got the crowd to their feet with their rousing set, which nearly blew the roof off the Maberly hall.

The three, who are each talented players in their own right, have come together in this trio, and they demonstrated in their original tune, the title track of their new album titled “Secret Victory”, how they love to play all out. The album will be released on October 9. This tune has them slowly increasing their intensity, only to be silenced abruptly for a beat, then come right back in louder, harder and faster than before. These songs are what inspired the many listeners to jump to their feet and swing along. While the trio's all out Celtic swings and stomps are what they are likely best known for, they are also diverse in their repertoire and they nailed some more sombre and reflective tunes like the original “The Wreck of the H.M.S. Phoenix”, a sad tune based on the true story of a P.E.I. ship wreck, and their funkiest song of the show, their cover of Gotye's “Hearts a Mess”.

They also sing gorgeous harmonies together and their a capella original titled “Blainey's Laughing Eyes” was pitch perfect, seamless and perfectly weighted. Tim's virtuosic abilities on the fiddle are mesmerizing; Koady's fingers can pick out the quickest and most precise leading lines on banjo; and no matter how fast and hard the playing gets, Jake Charron can hold down the lower end and keep everyone in check with his solid rhythm guitar.

Rightly so, Frontenac Park is considered the hidden jewel of Frontenac County. It is located in the midst of an array of communities and cottage lakes, within a stone's throw of Sydenham and is a short drive from Kingston; and yet it is a backwoods park in a unique geological and climactic location. It features the best canoeing, camping and hiking this side of Bon Echo Park, which is also a jewel but one that is less hidden and is also shared between Frontenac and Lennox and Addington.

In his definitive book on the back story about the land where Frontenac Park is located, “Their Enduring Spirit: the History of Frontenac Park 1783-1990”, Christian Barber extensively researched all of the development that took place in and around the park before the idea of a park was floated and eventually acted upon in the 1960s.

In doing so, Their Enduring Spirit is not only a valuable resource in terms of how the park was developed; it is also an account of the difficulties posed by the Frontenac Spur of the Canadian Shield on those who were unlucky enough to attempt homesteading in its rocky terrain.

The park is located in what were then Loughborough and Bedford Townships, now both part of the Municipality of South Frontenac. Many of the settlers who attempted to make a life in that region did so in the mid-to-late 1800s. There were some Loyalists among them, but there were also a number of Irish immigrants who made their way first to St. Patrick's Church in Railton, and then headed into the wilderness north of Sydenham in search of a new life.

What greeted them was brutal and difficult.

The history of a number of homesteading families forms the core of Their Enduring Spirit. Based on historic records, interviews with descendants who lived on or visited those who lived on the farms, and by walking the land and examining the remnants that are being reclaimed as wilderness lands, a picture of life in the back townships during the first 100 years of Frontenac County emerges.

The first family to be profiled in the book is the Kemp family, who arrived at their farm at Otter Lake, near the west gate of the park, sometime in the 1860s. By the time of the 1871 census, William and Jane Kemp, both 47, had six children living with them. The land they laid claim to, in addition to other properties taken on by their son George, was very good by local standards. Over two decades of work, making use of the efforts of the entire family, 30 acres of the 95 acre property had been cleared.

“That might not sound like much to show for 20 years of labour, but in that district most farms worked 15 or 20 cleared acres. In fact the clearing was usually completed in relatively short order. But it was back-breaking work, without mechanical means. It involved cutting down the trees and clearing the brush, then burning the stumps that could not be wrenched from the ground by a team of horses or oxen and hauled away to form a first fence row. In the meantime the job of raising a crop to feed the family over the winter had to go on, and the first seeds were usually sown among the stumps ... it was no wonder that among the first settlers it was axiomatic to hate trees,” wrote Christian Barber in Their Enduring Spirit.

The Kemp family prospered, and by 1900 the original log cabin that was built in the early 1870s had disappeared beneath white, painted clapboard, and numerous outbuildings had been constructed as well. There was a root cellar below, and fields that extended right to the front doorway.

Still, cash was not easy to come by.

A ledger from M.A. Hogan's General Store in Sydenham illustrates this. In late 1912, Mary Shales Kemp, George's wife, who managed the family finances among numerous other tasks, purchased dishes, a pair of overalls for a dollar, and the indulgences of walnuts and a vase, for a total cost of $7.32.

Her custom was to pay for her purchases with butter and eggs from the farm. However on this occasion, after the eggs and butter were factored in there was a shortfall of $1.45. Back went the overalls and the extra 45 cents was paid in cash.

During the mica mining year in the first decade of the 20th century, George Kemp found a number of small deposits on his farm, and even took on investors to pay the $70 that was needed for drills and blasting powder at one site. However, enough mica was never found to make a profit on the venture.

To the extent that there were roads in the area, they were built and maintained by all of the farmers living in there, sometimes as part of their taxation responsibilities, which, in the late 19th century, included putting in some time improving the local roads.

While the Kemp family were able to establish a successful farm in what is now Frontenac Park, it was ultimately unsustainable. Mary Kemp lived on the farm after George died, but moved away in 1928 and sold the property in 1941. The last people to occupy it were a family from Wyoming in the late 1940s.

By the time Mary Kemp died in Sydenham in 1952 at the age of 93, the property where she had made her life had been abandoned and the house and barns had burned down.

When Christian Barber went to the property in the late 1980s as he was preparing his book, it was mostly overgrown with vegetation, and it required effort on his part to find the remnants of what had been a going concern for 60 or 70 years.

He notes this at the end of his chapter on the Kemp family of Kemp Road : “... the fields, so painstakingly cleared and planted and harvested by generations of settlers, are overgrown with sumac and birch, locust and juniper. Rusted barbed wire – embedded by years in the centre of the trees that it was originally stapled to the bark of – is stretched to the breaking point by fallen trees, and there is no one to cut them away; no farmer in overalls, with strong, knuckly, barked, and sun-tanned hands to walk the line on a summer day between haying and harvest and maintain a fence.”

The Kemp family's story is similar in outcome to others told in the book - struggle and some success followed by a move to better farmland elsewhere in the region or to work off the farm in Sydenham or beyond. Mining and logging were also prevalent in the park. Logging started in the early 19th century and mining later on, with the logging having the greatest impact on the land, as it did elsewhere in the region generally.

In the interesting chapter on mining, Barber touches on the story of Antoine Point on Devil Lake.

Francis Edward Antoine and his wife, Letitia Whiteduck, built a log cabin on the Point in the mid 19th century and they are buried there. One of their sons, John Antoine, is listed, along with the government, as the owner of Antoine Point in the 1883 Meacham map, one of the best source materials for information about land ownership in those years. John, with his wife Elizabeth Hollywood, had 11 children. According to Antoine family lore, it was John who found mica deposits at Antoine Point, although there are competing accounts about who found the ore at that location, and it seems that the Point became of interest to mining interests in the early 1890s.

There is an entry in the land registry indicating that John Antoine sold his interest in the land to William Jones for $50 in 1897, and the Antoines moved to Godfrey, and eventually back to Sharbot Lake, where another branch of the family was already located.

The idea of establishing a wilderness park on the lands in Loughborough and Bedford township that had resisted settlement, and whose lakes (Devil, Big Clear, Otter, and Buck) were not already cut up into cottage lots, was first floated in the 1940s.

In 1954 a Parks Division was created within the Department of Lands and Forests of Ontario (the precursor to the Ministry of Natural Resources.

In 1957, the Kingston Rod and Gun Club submitted a proposal for a new park to serve the growing numbers of people in Kingston and southern Frontenac County wanting to experience the great outdoors, hiking, camping, fishing and the enjoyment of a sandy beach.

The proposal included twenty seven 200 acre lots in Bedford and twenty five 200 acre lots in Lougborough, a total of 16.2 square miles, with an option to increase it to 23.7 square miles if the area below Otter lake was added.

That effort was not successful, and seemed to be dead when Murphy's Point Park on Big Rideau Lake near Perth was established instead.

Five years later, in 1962, another group, the Kingston Nature Club, put forward a similar proposal. This time, even though the cost of purchasing private land for the park had ballooned to $200,000, the proposal was successful. It eventually cost over $1 million to create Frontenac Park, which opened in the late 1960s.

The park's first superintendent, Bruce Page, was the great grandson of Jeremiah, one of the first settlers on the land in the vicinity of what became Frontenac Park.

When Plevna quilter Debbie Emery won the design contest for the Frontenac County 150th anniversary quilt, she knew she was going to have a lot of work to do to translate her design into a finished quilt.

By the time she delivered the quilt to the county in early August, in time for it to be displayed as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations, she had put 650 hours of her own labour into the project, turning the $2,000 prize for winning the contest into a $3 an hour part time job for eight months.

More importantly, the quilt was front and centre at the opening ceremonies of the celebration event in Harrowsmith, and will be available for display at the county offices for years to come.

Using the rail line as a unifying feature, the quilt illustrates the three geographical components of Frontenac County, from the island communities that are surrounded by Lake Ontario, to the farmland in South Frontenac Township and into the Canadian Shield in the north.

The quilt also points to the First Nations heritage of the county, and to activities such as logging, homesteading, tourism and the night skies.

Every small community has one: a treasured building that brings people together for town meetings, yoga classes, bingo games, local theatre, white elephant sales - and the list goes on. The Ontario Festival of Small Halls is about sharing a love of music in a beloved place. Brought to you by the Team Behind Bluesfest, the Festival of Small Halls brings exceptional Canadian musicians to small venues across Eastern Ontario.

These buildings have rich cultural histories and countless stories to tell. No two are alike. During the festival, communities across Eastern Ontario will throw open the doors of their small halls for an unforgettable night of music. Some of Canada’s best musicians will step off the big stage and hit the scenic back roads to perform in legions, schools, churches, or town halls. They will receive a warm, small-town welcome from communities of music lovers who are eager to show off their treasured halls and their hospitality, all in the name of excellent music.

Small Halls festivals are popping up around the world. What started in PEI has spread to Australia, and now to Ontario. The Festival of Small Halls is proud to join this international community dedicated to showcasing first-rate music in intimate venues.

The Festival of Small Halls is about sharing big music in small, cherished places. It’s about settling into the heart of a community, and then experiencing music with heart. Advance tickets may be purchased at www.thefestivalofsmallhalls.com or see below.

• On Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7:30pm, Gordie MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys with Long Sault Trio will perform at the McDonalds Corners Agricultural Hall. A community dinner will be provided at the hall from 5-6:30pm. The dinner will be a $15 buffet and includes dessert, tea or coffee. Show and dinner tickets are available at The Hill Store in McDonalds Corners or from Sally Andrews, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

• Sunday, Sept. 20 at 4pm, The East Pointers with The Unspoken Rests will perform at the Maberly Community Hall.

• Sunday, Sept. 27 Beòlach from Cape Breton with Jessica Wedden will perform at the ABC Hall in Bolingbroke at 3pm. Note: this concert is sold out. 

While it may be warm today, we’re heading towards October and you may be interested in taking an autumn journey through the back roads of North Frontenac to discover a few hidden treasures.

Not only will the scenery be fantastic but also the weekend of Saturday & Sunday, September 26 and 27 from 10am until 4pm every day, local artists will be opening their studios to exhibit their handmade wares in the gardens and studios in which they were made.

There are a variety of mediums represented this year in 12 locations across an expanse of roadway weaving in and around a multitude of lakes and vistas. There will be oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, jewelry, woodcarvings of all shapes and sizes and even award winning embellished and carved gourds by Plevna artist Marlene Leeson.

There will be stained glass, paintings and painted floor cloths at Red Dragon studios near Malcolm Lake. Down the road a little while you will find concrete furniture on display and for sale at Tuscany Concrete on the shores of Little Mink Lake.

On the way to Buckshot Lake there will be hollowed log forest frames, quilts, dish cloths and other sewn treasures at one studio and acrylic paintings and hand carved lawn ornaments at another.

In Ompah you will find the meticulously detailed paintings of Linda Rush.

Silent Valley Alpaca between Snow Road Station and Ompah will be interesting over the weekend as the studio tour coincides with National Alpaca Farm Day across Canada and the US.

Robert and Hanne Quigley will be hosting a look at Alpaca farming and processing the fleece. There will be a raw fleece dying demonstrations. Someone else will be carding the fleece into roving for spinning. A weaver will be on hand to show her work process on the loom.

Visitors will have the opportunity to check out the barn and see the new baby alpacas as well as their friends and family. Baby alpacas are roughly 16 lb. when born and grow up to weigh as much as 190 lb. for a male and 160 lb. for a female. There are 35 alpacas in all at Silent Valley. You’ll also get a chance to see the finished product at the old granary that’s been converted into the farm store, which will be selling dyed yarn as well as items of knitwear.

Johnston Lake Organic Food and Good Stuff Bakery will prove to be a tasty place to stop along the route.

“This area is littered with artists and artisans back here,” said Marlene Leeson, “We’re trying to pique people’s interests. I’m trying to beautify Plevna”.

Leeson has already put Plevna on the map, when one of her pieces won 3rd place in an international gourd art competition. She uses everything from clay, textile mediums to wire and acrylics.

You can find more information in the brochures that are distributed at businesses in the area as well as at each stop on the tour. There’s also a helpful website northfrontenacbackroadsstudiotour.com

Tay Valley Township will be celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the establishment of the original Perth Military Settlement in 2016. The first lot allocated to a settler under the Bathurst Proclamation in Edinburgh was on the Scotch Line in Tay Valley.
Anniversary celebrations will be inaugurated by the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
The celebration will include the launch of At Home in Tay Valley (Burnstown Publishing House), which captures the voices, stories, images, circumstances, and events that have defined the lives of those who have called Tay Valley home―from members of the Algonquin First Nations who helped the early settlers survive and adapt to a new land, to the “back-to the-landers” of the 1970s who sought a more wholesome way of life. A community effort involving more than 60 contributors including dozens of writers, interviewers, artists and photographers under the editorship of Kay Rogers, this oral history captures a story that has been 200 years in the making.
The kick off of 200th anniversary celebrations and the release of At Home in Tay Valley will take place on September 19, 2015 from 2 – 4pm at EcoTay Educational Centre, 942 Upper Scotch Line. Local food, beverages, flowers and music will be provided by cake designer Christa’s Cakes; Jameshaven Farm, Sylvia’s Plant Place and the Blue Skies Community Fiddle Orchestra respectively. A calendar of events, background information, photos and other materials are available on a wide range of subjects  f interest associated with 200th anniversary activities and history. For further information contact Amber Hall, (613) 267-5353 ext. 133, or by email: events & This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

This year’s Sundance Artisan show in Maberly offered up an impressive lineup of the creations of local and not so local artists and artisans. Organized for the first time this year by the new owners of the Fall River Restaurant, Therese Steenberghe and Jeroen Kerrebijn, with the help of canoe maker Brent Kirkham, and photographer Paul Shuster, the show attracted close to 4000 guests over the three-day holiday weekend.

Among the impressive art work was the figurative art of Mary Lynn Baker of Addison, Ontario. Baker is a long ago graduate of the Ontario College of Art and design and she has been making her unique brand of high-flying fantasy figures both in the form of aerial papier-mâché sculptures and paintings for decades now. Much of her work seems familiar, which is likely due to the fact that she has been showcased on a number of TV shows, commercials and in various publications world wide. Her aerial sculptures are vibrant and buoyant, both literally and figuratively speaking; they often elicit a laugh or at the least a smile from those who see them. Because they hang in mid-air, just fastened with thin, invisible pieces of fishing line, they are constantly in movement, which makes them even more eye catching and a delight to behold in person.

These cheerful aerial subjects include winged pigs, flying everyday super humans, as well as lawyers dressed in their courtly attire, one in particular with one hand clutching a brief case and the other stretching forward in a simulated superman pose as he seems to cut through the ether almost effortlessly.

“I like to make anything that strikes me as fun,” Baker said when I visited her booth at the show, “and as far as I know, I am the only person who makes suspended kinetic sculptures because they are what people most seem to enjoy.”

For these figures, she uses her own long ago perfected recipe of papier-mâché, a specialized formula comprised of only flour and water, which she bakes in an oven. This gives the pieces their smooth surfaces which she later paints using household paint colours.

Sculpting is not everything for Baker; she has also been painting for decades and many of her canvases depict similar subject matter to the sculptures; cheerful and colourfully dressed couples and also larger groupings of people, most often women, dressed in brightly colored and patterned outfits and seemingly caught in an instant of joyous merriment. “I love to watch ordinary people when they are dancing at, let's say a wedding or some other event where they are having a really good time and seem to just really be getting out of themselves. These are people who may not be at the height of fashion and maybe aren't the best dancers but still, they are enjoying the moment and for me there is something very charming and interesting in that”. She is a muralist as well and has painted 16 large murals commissioned by the towns and schools of Brockville, Athens and Shelburne, Ontario.

While most of her work is not titled, her flying “super grandpa” is just one in a series that have included titles like “super guy”, and “super woman”. One free standing table-top sculpture depicts a woman in matching harlequin, horn-rimmed glasses and hat, sporting a spotted leopard patterned suit, and is loosely based on Andrea Martin's famed SCTV character, Edith Prickley.

Baker’s most recent paintings, which she paints in acrylics, have moved into the realm of personal memories and are more realistic in nature than her older, solely figurative works. Here she is painting cheerful scenes based on specific memories from her life. One shows a costume party on an ice rink that she remembers from long ago in Ottawa.

Baker was just one of 38 artists at the Sundance show, which, while under new management, still continues to offer some of the best work by artists and artisans from Eastern Ontario.

Jewelery makers Steve and Janet MacIntyre of Napanee participated for their third year at the Inroads Studio Tour as guests at the home and studio of local woodworker Ken Waller of Sharbot Lake. The couple make a wide range of fused glass jewelry using a laser engraved dichroic glass technique to create gorgeous patterns and images. Part of the attraction of the annual Inroads Studio Tour is getting a chance to see the work of not so local artisans who participate as special guests on the tour. Jill Ferguson was another guest on the tour who showed at Judith Versavel's Gallery by the Bay in Arden and she showcased an eclectic collection of her original acrylic paintings, which are inspired by nature, travel and the Ontario countryside.

On August 29 Sharbot Lake village came alive as the sound of the CADRE (Canadian Associates Drumming Rudimental Excellence) drummers rang out through town in a special free afternoon performance on the lawn of the Sharbot Lake Country Inn.

Thanks to a generous invitation extended to the group by inn owners Frank and Sandra White, drumming fans, those just curious, and those lucky enough just to be passing by were awed by the prowess, precision and impeccable playing of this five-time world champion drumming ensemble. The players delighted listeners with what they called a “dress rehearsal” for their upcoming world championship competition, which will take place in Rochester, New York, on September 4. A total of nine players who make up the competition group performed “Camp 3”, a piece comprised of drum core classics that was written by eight different authors from the U.S. and Canada.

The highlight of the show was the competition piece that the group will be playing in Rochester, a tune called “Boy in a Red Shirt” that was written in part by Paul Mosley (who leads the competition group) and Fred Johnson, the current president of the CADRE ensemble. The piece is comprised of no less than eight different time signatures and includes a number of different sticking patterns, one called back-sticking where the drummers use the back of the drum stick to make the beat, as well as a technique called cross-sticking. For the competition piece the drummers play a series of identical snare drums, and some of the members also play a second set of tuned drums called quintuplet drums as well as one bass drum.

The drummers begin the competition each playing on the identical snares and at certain point in the piece three of the players move from the snares to the quintuplet drums to add a different sound into the mix. The wonder of the sound comes from how the players are able to play with such rapid fire precision and in perfect time while also adding a number of tricky choreographed moves that make the performance a marvel to both see and hear. At the competition the drummers will be judged on a number of different criteria including content, execution, expression, the number of mistakes they make and how varied the program is, as well as for their general presentation.

Asked what makes a good drummer, Fred Johnson, who has been drumming since 1946 and first started in an Air Cadet band in Toronto, said it's how well you play without making any mistakes. “A good drummer is able to take a score, and play it without making mistakes and many of the competitors in the group will often practise for four hours a day to hone their skills.”

At Saturday's performance Johnson also played along with the other CADRE members on a series of ancient wooden rope drums in a style of rudimental drumming that Johnson said “has not changed in 500 years”. Their repertoire on these drums included tunes that had been written in the British Isles in the 1600s, one solo tune whose roots go back to Napoleonic times and the French Revolution, along with some more modern American fife and drum selections written earlier this century.

As explained on their web site cadre-online.ca, the group adheres to some strict principles which Johnson says has contributed to the group's success as an award-winning international ensemble. They include focusing on excellence, 100% acceptance and adherence to a musical master score, and approaching the performance by emphasizing the many shades of musical dynamics to create “that elusive inner-bar magic”.

The group demonstrated that magic on Saturday afternoon in Sharbot Lake and those who were lucky enough to take it in can understand why this group continues to excel on the international stage. For those who missed the show, you can see videos of the group playing on their website.

Attendance reaches target of 10,000

It took the efforts of a committee of volunteers, the Township of South Frontenac, Frontenac County staffers Alison Vandervelde and Anne Marie Young, co-ordinators Pam Morey and Dan Bell, and hundreds of volunteers on the grounds to produce a relaxed, happy, and engaged crowd at the Frontenac County weekend-long 150th Anniversary Celebration.

The long range planning that helped make that happen started with the upgrades that were done to Centennial Park to turn it into a mixed-use facility that is as suitable for a soccer tournament or a high school football game as it is for a fair or large exhibition. This involved clearing a swath of land for parking, paving walkways, upgrading the stage/picnic area, etc. All of this work was taken on by the township over the last 18 months, and was done with accessibility needs in mind thanks to the efforts of Neil Allan, who consults with the township and sits on the county accessibility committee as well.

The planning for the event itself has been underway for a couple of years, but it was over the last six or seven months that all of the detailed work was done, the musicians booked, the vendors sought and secured, etc.

By the time Friday (August 28) rolled around, tents were going up around the grounds; cordoned-off areas had been set up for kids who would be playing on the bouncy castles and for adults at the “saloon”; the re-enactors had set up their camp; and the dignitaries were gathered for the opening ceremonies.

Any illusion that the proceedings would be dry and formal were dispelled when Central Frontenac Town Crier Paddy O'Connor enlisted the audience’s participation in calling out “O-yeah”.

This was followed by the raising of the Canadian flag and Heather Bell singing O Canada.

The MC for the ceremony was Phil Leonard, former mayor of Portland and South Frontenac Townships and County Warden on several occasions as well. Leonard also sat on the 150th anniversary committee. He introduced a number of speakers, including: South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal, Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson, MPs Scott Reid and Ted Hsu, MPPs Randy Hillier and Sophie Kiwala, North Frontenac Mayor Ron Higgins, culminating in remarks by Dennis Doyle, the Mayor of Frontenac Islands and Warden of the County.

The speeches were, for the most part, brief, and in keeping with the tone that had been set early for the event, relatively irreverent. Among the other dignitaries at the event were a number of former wardens of Frontenac County, including 95-year-old Don Lee, Jack Moreland, Bill MacDonald, Bill Lake, Barbara Sproule, Phil Leonard, Ron Sleeth, Janet Gutowski, and Jim Vanden Hoek.

The ceremonies having been dispensed with, it was time to let loose, and the saloon was a destination for politicians - a fitting location considering that the county and townships used to hold their meetings in pubs in the 1800s.

Following the showing of a family movie, a fireworks spectacle ended the opening night of the festival.

Saturday was a busy, busy day. A parade started it off, and with the Frontenac Plowing Match underway across the road, thousands enjoyed the sunshine and a full schedule of events. Over 5,000 people streamed into the park throughout the day, enjoying free admission and entertainment from a host of musicians, a strongman competition, and a short skirmish by the Brockville Infantry Company of 1862.

On Saturday night, the Golden Links Hall hosted a Heritage Ball, where about half the audience was dressed in 1860s vintage clothing. This was a challenge because not only did the band Soul Survivors keep the R&B hits coming all night to keep the dance floor full, but the evening was more than a bit warm for wool suits and layered dresses.

Sunday, the final day of the event was a bit more low key than Saturday, although the park remained busy.

The Brockville Infantry, who had been camping on site throughout the weekend, finally had their chance to put on a full re-enactment. The Fenians, Irish descended former Americans who raided Canada in order to pressure England to pull out of Ireland, lost the battle to a squadron of Red Coats and the Brockville Infantry amid gun and cannon fire. The Fenian raids took place around the time that Frontenac County was founded, and they were the last time any attacks on Canada were launched from US soil.

About an hour after the re-enactment, the closing ceremonies got underway. As the public left, the vendors, food trucks, and volunteers began to clean up, leaving Harrowsmith Centennial Park in pristine condition, a fitting legacy project for the 150th anniversary.