Still skies greeted the crowd at Innisfil Town Square Saturday morning to kick off the second instalment of Innisfil's Winter Weekends. As outdoor sellers and sponsors opened up, Stasia Fantasia the snow fairy greeted people before the first event of the day. Councillor Grace Constantine, another early attendee remarked on the beautiful weather, glad it was not as active as Friday’s fierce winds.
Vendors were selling their wares outside in the square and inside the library in the vendor market. Food trucks offered the cold crowd options for eating. Big people got a chuckle as they enjoyed playing on the tiny curling rink.
The first event to assemble visitors outdoors was Brandon the juggling fire-eating skater. Inside the library face painting, story time and balloon creations from Boballoonie occupied the youngsters as well as keychain making a scavenger hunt, greenscreen photos and snowman craft later in the day.
Inside the entrance to the library Melissa Harris, manager of creative marketing and discovery, was curating heart shaped papers cut in the hack lab with words of appreciation for the library, messages of encouragement for the staff and other visitors through their journeys of discovery at the location.
Library communications and events manager Wendy Riccardi and Daniella Severino, arts, culture and event specialist for the Town of Innisfil, were both on hand overseeing the event. They describe their jobs Saturday as a “tag team” on the smooth operation of the multitude of continuous events throughout the day.
“Last weekend was the start of our month but this is the main weekend where we’ve tried to fill it with something for everyone both Saturday and Sunday,” said Severino.
“There is always discovery when we have events here a the library,” Riccardi noted. She said it’s not just children finding new things at the IdeaLAB and library, but long-time residents and those new to the community that weren’t aware of all that was offered through the location.
Saturdays events continued at other locations with an open swim at the YMCA, a blues festival at the Cookstown library and community dance at the Cookstown Curling club.