Essex Fun Fest a big hit once again

CMAO Female Artist of the Year Elyse Saunders

Billed as the best small-town event in Windsor-Essex, the annual Essex Fun Festival certainly lived up to its reputation this past weekend.

Located at the Sports Complex it once again provided a wide-range of activities and amusements for all ages.

“We are family-orientated. We take note of what’s good for all ages,” said festival co-chair Rich Tapping.

One of the highlights, and now in its fourth successful year, was the Sip-N-Shop which paired local businesses with great tasting Essex County wines. It supports Community Living Essex County, and once again it was sold out with over 600 attending.

“Thursday was always a difficult time to get people out so our chair (Joe Garon) came up with the idea to support local,” noted Tapping.

Another highlight of the Essex Fun Festival, which has been going on for over 35  years, was headlining entertainer, Aaron Pritchett. The multi-CCMA and Juno Award Nominee country music star was part of a long list of musical guests which included several tribute bands.

There were a couple of new features to the festival this year including OLG, which had an interactive entertainment area set up to celebrate its 50^th anniversary. A new attraction, and one which gained in popularity as the weekend went on was rock-climbing.

Tapping emphasized how important the contribution of dozens of sponsors were.

“Without them, we can’t keep our ticket prices as low as we do.”

While most of the events this year were held at the Sports Complex the Friday car show, which attracted hundreds, the annual Saturday morning parade and the Legion Pickerel dinner were all part of the downtown fun. Sunday morning there was a 5km walk/run/wheel at Sadler’s Pond.

Essex Minor Baseball hosted a 24-team tournament at Co-An Park in McGregor.

Super dogs came with their tricks along with a magician, a juggler, and back by popular demand, wrestling.

Saturday night there was the big fireworks display and as always, there weredozens of vendors with lots to choose from as well as some mouth-watering food with everything from burgers and dogs to pretzels and ice cream.

“We try and change it up in the food court so we have a couple of new ones and some favourites coming back,” said Tapping.

Another big highlight of the Essex Fun Fest is the annual announcement of the town’s Citizen of the Year. This year’s recipient was Tom Bonneau.

Essex Fun Fest a big hit once again

By Fred Groves