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travel / adventure zone
| The Adventure Zone |
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| Photo © iStockphoto.com |
Flower Power
Touting the wily dandelion in North Grenville
By Tracy C. Read
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| Photo: North Grenville Dandelion Festival |
This year in central Canada, the unseasonably warm sun shone all April. The leaves came out a little earlier than usual. And look around — for weeks, the fields and lawns have been alive with Taraxacum officinale, the scourge of every suburbanite landscaper. But in the Municipality of North Grenville, southwest of the Nation’s Capital, they make lemonade out of lemons ... not to mention an end-of-May festival that tips its hat to the”wily dandelion.”
A three-day celebration of everything that is good in community life, the Dandelion Festival boasts arts and crafts, music, theatre and dance, promoting physical activity, care for the planet and plain old-fashioned fun. Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year from the heart of ‘Old Town’ Kemptville, an historic Eastern Ontario town on the Rideau River, the festival has expanded and enriched its mandate over the years in its wildly successful effort to “paint the town yellow.”
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| Photo: North Grenville Dandelion Festival |
VegStock, a now three-year-old live music event, launches Friday, May 28, with local talent taking the downtown street stage. Bluegrass, folk and country music will fill the air through the weekend, which culminates in a come-one, come-all street dance. History buffs and river enthusiasts can take a Voyageur canoe tour on the Rideau, while animal lovers can visit a petting zoo hosted by the Big Sky Ranch Animal Sanctuary.
For the growing group of citizens for whom cycling is synonymous with spring, there’s also the inaugural edition of the Dandelion Grand Prix Race. Held Sunday on the area’s open, winding country roads, participants can choose from three levels of competition. Says co-organizer and avid cyclist Ryan Phelps, “This is something I'd love to see get as much community support as possible, with people out cheering along the sidelines.”
If history is any indicator, the good people of North Grenville won’t let Phelps down.
For more information visit www.northgrenville.ca/dandelion
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