A festival of live music by local bands returns Friday and Saturday to Kenwick on the Lake Park in Bright’s Grove.
The Bright’s Grove Music Fest began in 2017 at the waterfront park and returned in 2018 and 2019 before pausing two summers during pandemic restrictions.
“And now we’re back for 2022,” said James Snider, a member of the committee of volunteers and “close friends” who organizes the festival.
“This is the first year that we’ve held a two-day event,” he said. “This is really new for us.”
The festival will open each day at 3:30 pm with music beginning at 4 pm
There is no entry fee at the licensed event but donations are accepted and all of the proceeds from the weekend will go to Bluewater Health Foundation to support a pediatric diabetes program.
There will be vendors, including several selling food, set up in the park and the event is open to all ages.
Snider, who plays in the band Aces High, said he had moved to Bright’s Grove with his family in 2016 and saw a band playing at the park one weekend.
Snider said that got him thinking and he checked at Sarnia City Hall about arranging to use the park for an all-ages daytime performance.
“It turned out with the rental fee, you get the park for the full day so we started thinking, ‘Maybe we should bring some other bands?’”
Snider said he began talking with others about the idea “and it just grew from there.”
Eight or more bands played at the first one-day event, he said.
Snider said attendance grew each year and reached about 2,000 people in 2018 and 2019, over the course of the day.
The organizers have teamed up with a local charity each year. The 2019 festival raised about $7,000 for St. Joseph’s Hospice, Snider said.
“We ask for a donation at the door,” he said. “That donation goes directly to the charity.”
“If you can give, give and if you can’t, it’s no problem at all. We want everyone to be able to come into the park and enjoy the day.”
The bands enjoy playing the festival, Snider said.
“It’s a really fun kind of community backstage when we’re loading bands in and loading bands out.”
Friday’s band lineup is Sarah Stevens, The Gypsy Flats, Full Disclosure, Retrospect and Big Shiny Toons.
Saturday’s line up is Acoustic DJ, Dead Engine City, Chain Reaction, Johnny Five and Aces High.