LAURIE WEIR
The countdown is on for the return of Smiths Falls Old Home Week, set to take over the town from Aug. 2 to 9 with a full slate of free, community-led events, activities and entertainment.
Delegation co-chair Christa Dales Donnelly updated council’s committee of the whole on May 12 on plans for what’s shaping up to be the biggest party in 25 years.
“We have secured about $50,000 from our wonderful partners, who have been incredibly generous with cash and products for the festival,” she told council. “We have raised approximately $25,000 from our fundraising sales and expect another $30,000 with sale of merchandise.”
The festival committee has already launched popular playing cards and plans to release branded beer, souvenir programs, T-shirts, hats and magnets in the weeks ahead.
“All of these items will be limited so that we can sell out by the end of the festival. We want people to consider their merchandise purchase as their ticket into the festival, since all of the Old Home Week events are free,” Dales said. “We made items affordable for everyone to have a piece of Old Home Week to take home with them and save for 2050 and beyond.”
Signature events include an opening parade with pre- and post-parade festivities, a wellness fest, a 200-drone light show narrated by locals, and a “float test” where participants will launch personal floaties into the Rideau Canal at Beckwith Street and float into Lower Reach Park.
The unique “Nightshirt Parade and Park Fest” will see the community walk through town in pyjamas before gathering for food, music and a movie under the stars at Centennial Park.
Other highlights include a Riverbank Music Fest on Riverdale Avenue, a final concert featuring local artists plus Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen tribute bands, and a wide variety of community-led events like a youth talent show, pickleball and dodgeball tournaments, a women’s ball hockey tournament, heritage walking tours, a soapbox derby and a cornhole tournament.
Coun. Peter McKenna, who sits on the Old Home Week committee, praised the collaboration between the town and the volunteer committee.
“The staff bent over backwards — from the police department, fire department, public works, parks and recreation — every aspect of the town has said ‘yes’ until we have the signal. It’s really been wonderful,” McKenna said.
Dales also credited town staff for helping the committee navigate logistics.
“We cannot say how important it has been for them to be engaged in all of the meetings, to sit down with us about some of the details,” she said. “It’s given us legitimacy with groups in town to be able to say that everybody from council to all the directors to the staff has been engaged. Everybody can feel they have a piece of it.”
Volunteer sign-up is ongoing.
“We currently have about 70 registered, and tasks are being assigned for each event,” Dales said. “Whether it’s helping at one of the events or attending, which is the most important thing, it will be a great success.”
Dales cautioned council and the community to prepare for large crowds. Promotions have already taken the committee from Ottawa to rack card distribution across Ontario and along the Rideau Canal lock stations.
“We want our whole community to be engaged in some way and be prepared for very large crowds and long lineups,” she said. “All town events are better when we work together.”
Smiths Falls Old Home Week happens once every 25 years. Visit their website for more details: OldHomeWeek.com
