All signs point to successful Thornhill festival

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 24, 2014
By Simone Joseph


As Robb Stitt rode up and down Yonge Street in a golf cart, he looked over at Colborne Street.

He was content with what he saw at Saturday’s Thornhill Village Festival.

“It was jammed with people. The sun was shining and the temperatures were great,” said Stitt who is also treasurer and administrative co-ordinator.

A rain-filled event last year led to a smaller planning committee as well as a reduced budget, since the 2013 festival lost about $10,000.

Because of that loss, the festival had to cut out the parade and the petting zoo.

Despite this, Stitt believes the event was a success. He called this year “a bold experiment”, pointing out that this was the first year the fair was run with no admission fees, just donations.

More than $5,500 was donated, which is “spectacular,” Stitt said.

It is too early to know if the festival broke even, had a profit or a loss because the bills are still coming in, Stitt said.

Stitt estimates as many as 7,000 people turned up on Saturday.

This year’s event featured The Vaughan Showmobile (a stage on wheels towed by a truck and placed on Yonge Street for the show, to be towed away after 5 p.m.), which was the site of several events, including a performance re-creating the Disney movie Frozen, plus a chance to meet and greet Elsa and Anna after the show and the venue for an interactive musical performance with prize give-aways and dance-off contests.

While donations were good, Stitt said he can’t comment yet on what this means for next year’s festival.