Estival Preview photo by Phil Ottman

What is Estival?

The word Estival is not misspelled. Although the word was derived from Latin it is actually an old English word meaning Summery Things. That is what Port Hope Estival! is all about.

On August 1st & 2nd a group of volunteers will present Port Hope Estival! 2009 “one small town, one BIG weekend”. The celebration actually kicks off Friday night July 31st with a free sneak preview of the weekends events.

Saturday August 1st Walton Street will be closed for an amazing parade of colour, dance, & music at 10:30am. Last year’s parade was said to have been unlike anything previously seen in the area. This year’s will be even bigger and better. After the parade the street will remain closed with street performers, buskers and the merchants of Port Hope providing entertainment.

There will also be a judged window display competition amongst the merchants of Port Hope. If last year was any indication, these wonderful and creative displays will surprise and delight everyone.

Estival! will be hosting our 2nd annual Umbrella Design competition. Last year many groups, organizations & businesses challenged each other with some great designs. Individually, everyone from children to seniors participated and some of those efforts were truly inspired.
Musical performers will take the stage all weekend long at the Band Shell in Memorial Park. There will be special performances Saturday & Sunday evening. Keep checking the website for more information about those, as planning continues.

Numerous visual artists will display, sell & demonstrate their work under the bigtop in our “artist’s village”. There will also be a great selection of food & beverage available from various merchants of Northumberland County. Kids will be delighted by our children’s activity area.

We sincerely hope that this will become Port Hope’s annual Summer Signature Event, and believe that we will be successful in obtaining future funding from Federal, Provincial and Municipal Governments.