Windsor Summer Fest considering city-wide expansion

With the 2018 Detroit-Windsor Fireworks now in the rear-view mirror, the Windsor Parade Corporation is looking at new ways to increase public engagement for years to come.

If you ask the organization's chair Maggie Durocher, the answer may be as simple as decentralizing the Windsor Summer Fest from the riverside area.

"We work with a very specialized set of buskers out of Toronto and one of them actually came to us with a proposition that maybe a next step in terms of Summer Fest may be something that's not just here, but we can do multiple shows [across the city]," Durocher said.

The Freedom Fest

Currently, Windsor Summer Fest — formerly known as the International Freedom Festival until 2007 — takes place along the riverfront and it's been that way since day one.

"When I was little growing up, it was something my dad used to take a week off work so we could go to [it] at its heyday — to their air show, to the parade, all the things that they had," Durocher said, and the festival was a "big family thing" she looked forward to every year.

When the IFF filed for bankruptcy, the city asked Durocher's parade company to take over operations, with the main objective of continuing the Canada Day parade in Windsor.

"We kept the midway, the tugboat race ... the fireworks — it's always about growing because nothing's going to stay the same."

The way forward

Part of the growing process, according to Durocher, may be a result of the redevelopment of the Riverfront Festival Plaza.

"It's about where we move forward and how we meet the new demands. We have an ever-changing society that's looking for different things."

She said the Windsor Parade Corporation will be continuing to add new elements to the festival each year to maintain public engagement.

"If you don't, then you become just another festival," said Durocher.