Bay and Algoma Buskers Festival marks 10th year
The 10th annual festival ran Saturday and Sunday in the Bay and Algoma neighbourhood.
It featured various food and merchandise vendors, and performers from Thunder Bay, and around the world, including:
Steve Goodtime
Seb and Fritzzz
Fraser Hooper
Skye the Guy
Kasmir the Hungry
The Kidd
Creed Statuary
Women in Silk
Taiko Drummers
Phineas Gauge, and
the Bay Street Bastards.
Things got underway later than planned on Sunday, due to a heavy downpour that hit the city late in the morning, said Uriel Lubuk, one of the event's coordinators.
"It was awesome to see a lot of the arts and culture community come out," he said. "Awesome vendors, lots of smiley faces, lots of kids."
"We've always wanted free family fun," Lubuk said. "People come down, tip the buskers, see something new and amazing that they haven't seen before."
One of the local buskers was Zachary Ross, who performed both Saturday and Sunday.
"I've started learning how to do folk music," he said. "I host open mics at Lakehead Beer Company, and yeah, just love the community and love going out to play."
"I think it's a great time," he said of the festival. "I love seeing everyone out here."
Lubuk said organizers are already turning their attention to next year's buskers festival "and just seeing how we could push through, do a little bit better next year, but just keep the vibes the same."
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I just enjoy the reaction and the interaction with the kids.' A bench outside bears his name – the city's recognition for his volunteer hours and dedication to the Witch's Hut. The Witch's Hut A bench dedicated to longtime volunteer Jim Zacharkiw sits outside the Witch's Hut in Kildonan Park on July 30, 2025. (Katherine Dow/CTV News Winnipeg) 'Hansel we are saved' Over the years, the hut has played host to countless storybook hours, the Fairy Tales Festival, and plenty of photo shoots, as a favourite backdrop for shutterbugs, professional and aspiring. A 2015 estimate had over 1,000 people visiting the hut weekly during the summer months, the city report said. 'I used to bring Tal (Bachman) here when he was about two years of age. Every day we rode here on our bikes,' Randy Bachman said in a 2021 Instagram video taken inside the Witch's Hut. 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(Katherine Dow/CTV News Winnipeg) It's a sentiment echoed by scholar Donald Haase, Professor Greenhill tells me. 'Fairy tales are for everyone,' she said, paraphrasing him. 'We all make our own versions of fairy tales, sometimes from our recollections of fairy tales, and that is perfectly legitimate.' The Witch's Hut A terra cotta panel made by sculptor Elfriede Leopoldine Geier Berger shows the Witch visits a caged Hansel. The piece is on display at the Witch's Hut in Winnipeg's Kildonan Park on July 30, 2025. (Katherine Dow/CTV News Winnipeg) Despite her harsh initial criticism, Jane came to love her father's version of the Witch's Hut and the legacy it left behind. He passed away in 2008 of cancer. In his final days, he told Jane he would love her to recreate the design on a beach somewhere – her own summer abode. The Witch's Hut Jane Langes (centre) poses with friends at the Witch's Hut in Kildonan Park on Aug. 1, 2025. 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