By Brady Lang

St. Walburg’s 30th Annual Blueberry Festival kicks off Friday

Aug 24, 2018 | 9:13 AM

The 30th Annual St. Walburg Wild Blueberry Festival is right around the corner.

With events kicking off on Friday night at the Parish Centre, there is something for everyone at the 2018 event. Many vendors, volunteers, and visitors take part in the annual festival, making it one of the busiest weekends for the town of St. Walburg.

Kim Rendle, one of the organizers of the event told battlefordsNOW that without the volunteers and vendors, the festival wouldn’t be able to run as well as it does year after year.

“The vendors just keep coming and coming. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, helping out with the festival and it’s amazing seeing people continue to come every year.”

The festival started 30 years ago, and it all started with just five tables set up. Every year it’s grown with more and more visitors coming to the town of 700 people. Rendle knows that every year different factors come into how many people attend, but the weather has stayed cooperative over the 30 years, and that helps attract vendors of many different items.

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“Depending on if the blueberries are good for the year, but we have a large selection of wild blueberries,” she said. “We have around 130 tables for this year in vendors, from wood crafts to jewellery, to clothing, to toys, everything. We have 13 food vendors this year as well.”

Moving into the anniversary, the organizers tried changing up certain things to make the year even better than ever before. Along with a few new vendors, a dunk tank and 1 Up Gaming coming into the fold, Rendle says that they’re celebrating the anniversary with a new raffle idea.

“Because it’s our 30th year, we’ve tried doing some things differently this year, we went around to local businesses and have 30 door prizes in a free draw that will be given away,” she said. “It’s very hard to tell how many people come to the festival, so it’s kind of a way for us to figure out how many people come to the festival.”

Again, Rendle praised the numerous volunteers who make the event happen. She urged people that haven’t been able to experience the festival to come out and enjoy the festival, and enjoy the show.

“Hats off to all the volunteers that make this happen,” she said. “There is a lot of us, it’s amazing that in just one day you see 5,000 to 6,000 people show up. It’s quite a show.”

brady.lang@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @BradyLangCJNB