A booming “Summer in the Park”

Summer truly was in the park as the sun beamed down for the official opening of the “Summer in the Park” long weekend festival.

Derek Shogren, North Bay Heritage Festival Chair, explained that so far the midway has seen double the amount of people compared to last year.

“The day time festivities of the festival were never really booming. I think because the fact that this is all free, we will have a record crowd here this weekend,” Shogren said.

Shogren said the festival was a little challenging to organize this year due to the change in plans.

“Certainly we went through some growing pains for the first few months. To change course in mid stream was a little challenging but we have had a lot of support from the city and other corporate sponsors,” Shogren said.

There are all sorts of activities set up at Lee Park for families and friends to enjoy. There is the midway with all of its rides and games, a petting zoo, face painting and not to mention the main stage where all sorts of entertainment is planned.

Bob Duchesne and his son Evan were out enjoying all the rides that the midway had to offer.

“They get to me but they don’t even faze him,” Bob said about him and his son having different opinions on the rides.

“The rides are a lot of fun,” Evan said with a big grin.

The fate of the concert portion for next years Heritage Festival is still up in the air according to Shogren and Mayor Vic Fedeli.

“Whether or not we can get concerts back in the future, that’s up to the community, the city council and the corporate support. At the end of the day the people of North Bay will tell us what they want. As of right now the response we’ve gotten is unbelievable,” Shogren said.

“If we start planning early this year I hope we have a group that can organize the concerts for next year,” Fedeli said.