The Vankleek Hill Festival of Flavours takes place on Sunday, September 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., taking over Vankleek Hill’s Main Street as food vendors, artisans and entertainment transform the street into a giant pedestrian-filled food market.
There will be more than 70 kiosks at this year’s event, a supervised children’s play area and 50 Proof will be providing entertainment on the street from noon to 4 p.m. There is no charge to attend the event.
An added focus of this year’s event is that food vendors and attendees are encouraged to be green – recycling, upcycling, composting and more are all being promoted at this year’s event. If you are attending, you are encouraged to bring re-usable shopping bags for all the goodies that you will buy.
Excellent Events is presenting the event and says that another new element this year is an effort to work with charitable organizations to create a mini community village. A section for community booths will be at this year’s event and this section is open to organizations from across the region.
The theme of this year’s event is: Taste Joy! Nourish Community! — and those themes are prevalent in all the events presented by Excellent Events, including the Champlain Commercial Fair, which takes place in 2020.
The size of the event naturally seems to lead to professional food vendors who can meet not only the health and safety requirements, but the high demands of the crowds that day. Still, Excellent Events has plans to grow the event further during the next few years. According to spokesperson Samme Putzel, the organization is aiming to increase the number of vendors to 100 during the next two years and to grow attendance to 10,000, along with increasing its sponsorships.
Washrooms will be available in the Champlain Library at 94 Main street and at the Vankleek Hill Creating Centre at 13 on Highway 34. Portable washrooms will also be available behind Scotiabank at 55 Main Street.
