Paddlefest takes place in downtown Saint Andrews. Photo by Cindy Kohler.
With the province’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout ramping up, New Brunswickers are cautiously optimistic this summer can bring a bit of a return to normalcy.
In St. Andrews Paddlefest has long marked the beginning of music festival season in southern New Brunswick, as well as the opening of water sports for the sea-side town.
The music and outdoor activity-based festival is slated to return May 23-25, after the 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Artistic director Luke MacDonald says with just a few weeks until the event, they’re hopeful cases remain low enough that the show can go on.
“We’ve really just scaled back as much as possible,” he said. “We’re lucky where it’s always been a small event overall. We’ve had a main stage downtown that fits a few hundred people, but otherwise a lot of our events are pretty small in general.”
In accordance with Public Health guidelines, Paddlefest venues are limited to 50 people or at 50 per cent capacity, groups in the same bubble will be socially distanced, masks will be required, and contact tracing and temperature checks will be done at the door.
“We’re kind of lucky where when we got together to discuss ideas for this year… we realized we could probably do something very small and very intimate. Very safe is really the key thing we’re going for,” MacDonald said.
This year, the festival will have a distinctly New Brunswick flavour, as they’ve booked 18 artists from around the province including Isaac & Blewett, Keith Hallett, and Julie Aubé.
MacDonald hopes the festival can provide a sense of optimism for the community after 14 months of living under pandemic health regulations.
“Saint Andrews is sort of a resort town, a summer town, so Paddlefest has always been a kickoff for that. I think it’s always been an important thing for the community to kick off this spring season, the summer season, and bring people to town after the quiet months.”
Festival organizers are closely watching New Brunswick’s COVID-19 case numbers to ensure they can adhere to whichever phase the Saint John health zone is under by late May.
To that end, the festival’s outdoor element gives it an advantage in keeping attendees safe. This year they’ve planned a nature walk, a 19-kilometer run, and the annual beach clean-up to help promote environmental stewardship.
“A focus for this year is to be optimistic, obviously to be cautious and listen to health officials in terms of keeping everybody safe,” MacDonald said.
“We all kind of need that optimism right now that things will get back to some sense of normal in the next year, half a year, whatever it may be.”
