Saint John, N.B., gears up for busy festival season
Festival season kicks off in Saint John, N.B., this weekend, with a string of events along the city's waterfront leading into the peak for cruise ship arrivals.
The Boxcar Country Festival runs Saturday and Sunday in the Area 506 Container Village, with headliners Tenille Townes and Tim Hicks.
'The subtitle this year is whiskey, BBQ, and bands,' says Sarah Tippett, a member of the festival's organizing committee. 'We have a second stage which is free all weekend long, with BBQ and whiskey education sessions.'
Tippett says up to 7,000 people are expected to attend Boxcar this weekend, which is entering its third year.
Next weekend, the Area 506 Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary on the same large stage. The foundation of Area 506 originally came from stacked shipping containers which became a catalyst for revitalizing the waterfront over the last decade.
'The container village that we used to create for just one long weekend of the summer turned into this semi-permanent seasonal container village,' says Tippett. 'Really, in addition to a music festival lasting for 10 years, the development that it helped to create is really exciting and a point of pride for all of us.'
Early August will also see International Culturefest and Buskers on the Boardwalk return to the waterfront area, teeing up a cruise ship schedule which picks up the pace.
There have been five cruise ship visits in Port Saint John so far this season, but by November a total of 76 ships will have docked.
There are five days on the port's calendar where three cruise ships will be in Saint John Harbour at the same time: Sept. 17, Sept. 23, Oct. 8, Oct. 12, and Oct. 29.
Monica Memory is a vendor in the Area 506 Container Village who specializes in offering products from small Canadian businesses. Memory says she's already noticed an uptick in the number of people visiting from Ontario and Quebec this summer.
'I'm really excited for it,' says Memory. 'There's a lot of big ships coming in this year, and so far, the ones who've already been in are really excited about coming in and supporting Canada. So, I'm hoping it may be our best season ever.'
Area 506
The Area 506 Festival's main stage in Saint John, N.B. in 2024. (Source: Area 506)
For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
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