The four-day Kingsville Migration Festival saw families and visitors come together to celebrate community and the legacy of renowned conservationist Jack Miner at Lakeside Park, Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary and the Grovedale Arts & Cultural Centre this past weekend, October 16-19.
Being a part of Kingsville now for 56 years, the festival featured a parade through the downtown area, a variety of games in the lower bowl of the park, food trucks and craft beer at the sanctuary and multiple visual arts competitions in and around the cultural centre.
After Saturday’s parade, families packed Lakeside Park to carve pumpkins, build robots, participate in a scavenger hunt, and play with the oversized board games. On top of the hill, kids were screaming with delight on the train rides, while below they were amused by the dogs from Border City Barkers and the raptors brought to the park by Kingsport Environmental Falconry Service. Appearing at the festival were a few new events, including a cake walk, a scarecrow building contest and a nail driving competition.
Out on Road 3, a market was set up on Ty Cobb Field with food trucks, local artisan vendors, a craft beer alley, a stage with live music, a fishing pond, a straw maze, a bunny obstacle course and bird banding demonstrations.
Back in town, Mettawas Park and the surrounding area were abuzz with visual artists participating in a four-day en plein air painting event titled the Great Migration Paint Out. The Paint Out was made up of competitions for both adults and youth and featured a quick paint contest just after the annual parade. Artists gathered for a reception at the Grovedale Arts & Cultural Centre on the final day to honour the winners of the competition and to display their works for purchase.
Former CTV news anchor Jim Crichton was the Master of Ceremonies at the arts reception that displayed our local outdoor beauty on 96 entries from 44 artists. Winners included Jay Anderson in the adult category, Carter Raffoul in the youth category, Keyaira Preddie in the children category, Bob Voyvodic in the Quick Paint category, and Sandra Ellis for the People’s Choice Award.
Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers once again commanded the train in the festival parade and provided some commentary about the festival at Lakeside Park following the parade.
“It’s a big weekend for our community, it’s really a celebration of our heritage, of nature, of conservation and the history of Jack Miner,” he said. “We are at the flagship of our town, Lakeside Park. It’s packed with activity and we continue to try to bring value to our events with some new features this year.”
The Lay family from Leamington made their way out to the Migration Festival Parade for the first time. Pictured just as the parade concluded are, dad Kevin, twins Kiefer and Katie, and mom Kelly.
SUN photo by Paul Forman
Anne Young made her way to Lakeside Park to compete in the Great Migration Paint Out this past Friday. She is seen here painting one of the bridges that crosses Mill Creek in the park.
SUN photo by Paul Forman
UMEI Christian High School not only had a robot in the parade, but also had tables set up at Lakeside Park for some robot building. Testing their creations out are the Franzke brothers, Aden on the left and Ben on the right.
SUN photo by Paul Forman
Kingsville artist Kate Csak was participating in the two-hour quick paint competition for the first time. She is pictured here with her oil on canvas that attempts to capture the light and shadows on a unique tree at Lakeside Park.
SUN photo by Paul Forman
It was all about Canada Geese, pumpkins and smiles on the Adams’ Garden of Eatin’ entry.
SUN photo by Paul Forman
The Erie Migration District School float was all decked out in purple and gold for this year’s parade.
SUN photo by Paul Forman
