No ribfest for Charlottetown this year, but there will be one in Summerside
Natalia Goodwin | CBC News | Posted: June 30, 2017 9:00 AM | Last Updated: June 30, 2017
Summerside Capitals hosting a ribfest fundraiser in July
Ribfest won't be happening in Charlottetown, Red Shores has confirmed — but there will be a similar event starting up in Summerside, P.E.I., this summer.
Red Shores and the group of "ribbers" behind the event in the capital city had agreed to a three year term starting in 2015, but both parties have now agreed to discontinue that agreement.
"By its nature, Ribfest is an outdoor event. When we established the multi-year agreement, the only dates available to Red Shores by the ribbers was early June," said Michael MacKinnon, managing director of Red Shores.
"After two years of rainy, cold weather, and resulting poor visitation, Red Shores and the ribbers jointly agreed to discontinue staging the event."
Don't fret yet: similar event coming to Summerside
But there will still be a ribfest on the Island this year.
The Summerside Western Capitals hockey team is holding a similar event from July 21-23 at Green Shore.
It will be a fundraising event for the team, an idea borrowed from the Yarmouth Jr A Mariners, which has been doing the Mariners Ribfest for a couple of years. After talking to the Mariners, the Capitals reached out to the ribbers.
"They're a group of ribbers that travel all over Eastern Canada performing these events, and luckily they had a slot that we were able to get a weekend in July so we jumped all over it," said Phil Bridges, executive director of the Capitals.
The event is being organized by the team's booster club. It will be a partial fundraiser, with beverage sales going to the team. Bridges hopes to make it an annual event in Summerside.
"We think it's going to be great for our community, great for our province to continue having this event and we hope that Islanders from tip to tip will visit Summerside on that weekend, and obviously we hope that it is also another reason for tourists to come to Summerside that weekend."
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