By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Two burgeoning events in Osoyoos will join forces this fall bringing together the East Osoyoos Christmas Market and the Witches on the Water to create a new Halloween event.
Driven by Wina Poliquin of the Wide Arts National Association (WANA) and Meagan Young-Bibby of Lake Village Bakery fame, the ‘All Hallow’s Eve Festival’ will take place on Sunday, October 30, 2022 after recently being awarded a $10,000 grant by Osoyoos Town Council in support of the event.
This new event encompasses existing events including the Witches on the Water which was started by Ash Walters in 2020 with a few friends dressed as witches and on the water with paddleboards. One year later in 2021 WANA provided some sponsorship, 40 ‘witches’ turned out on the water and some 150 people came down to the lake on a crisp fall day to watch the spectacle.
In 2021 40 ‘witches’ turned out on the water and some 150 people came down to the lake on a crisp fall day to watch the spectacle.
Young-Bibby meanwhile had earlier started a European-inspired Christmas market in 2019, wanting to make it an annual event but of course pandemic restrictions put the kibosh on the 2020 version.
This past Dec. 2021 the market returned, hosted at the Campo Marina patio space with 25 vendors including food vendors, handicrafts and clothing, soapmakers, beer from North Basin Brewery, wine from Nighthawk Vineyard, and of course the Lake Village Bakery themselves with special Christmas baked goods. A portion of sales went to the South Okanagan Women In Need Society (SOWINS).
In a presentation to Council earlier this month for the funding, Young-Bibby noted that the event in 2019 had about 400 people attend with last year’s event seeing over 2,000 people attend despite rigid COVID protocols in place. “We did this ourselves and all out of pocket,” she said adding, “it was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work!”
“We decided that maybe we can bring all our forces together to create an event, we would have Witches on the Water, the Christmas market, and in the evening some performances with aerial performances and fire breathing,” said Poliquin. She also noted that given it would be at the end of October it would be out of fire season.
The event will be held at Gyro Beach and the two organizers are hoping to “bring a lot of people from the communities together,’ and are also hoping the event will help spur some shoulder season tourist traffic.
“We want to focus on local artisans, local food purveyors as well as having a beer and wine garden sponsored by a local brewery and winery,” said Young-Bibby. “That would make budgeting a lot easier for us,” and would solve many of the licensing and liability issues by tapping organizations who have experience in alcohol service handling that aspect.
The beer and wine garden would be a draw for adults she notes, adding that circus performances and live music would also be featured.
“It’s an event the town can look forward to and help establish Osoyoos more on the map during the shoulder season. Everyone knows what business is like in the summer but what businesses need is more consistent tourism in the off, and shoulder seasons,” she said.
The event will also carry an admission charge, likely following the ‘by donation’ model used for the East Osoyoos Christmas Market which raised 1,560 over the course of the five-hour event. The two organizers are confident they will be able to raise even more with a larger event.
Poliquin is also looking to hopefully extend the event to Oliver as well, once the Osoyoos one is up and running.
Council had approximately $74,389 available for disbursement under the Visitor Activity Enhancement Program for 2021-2022 projects. As of April 12 approximately $46,000 has been awarded in support of the Osoyoos and District Arts Council Spring Festival, Osoyoos Lake Paddling Club’s Dragon Boat Festival, Music in the Park, and the South Okanagan Similkameen Society Pride Arts Festival.
