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Throughout the year, groups and communities across the Island organize events to celebrate any number of occasions, including the seasons, the arts, music, culture, heritage, and the harvest. Islanders spirit of community and appreciation of a good time mean that we are ripe for a festival of just about any kind, and at any time of year. The fun usually begins in February, when communities across the Island hold their annual winter carnivals. Activities and dates vary among localities and from year to year, but participants can usually expect parades, winter sports, and evening entertainment; all designed to bring a little gaiety to the season and to dispel the winter doldrums wherever they may have set in. Music takes centre stage at several festivals throughout the year. The Benevolent Irish Society Hall is the site of weekly ceilidhs featuring local performers of Irish, Scottish, and Island traditional music. Kicking off the summer festival season in May, various Charlottetown venues host major jazz and blues players from across Canada during the Summertime Jazz and Blues Festival. Island performers come under the spotlight during the Rustico Shindigs during July and August. The acoustically pure St. Marys Church in Indian River hosts the annual Indian River Festival in late-July/early August as well as the Sunday Evening Concert Series starting in late June and continuing to the end of July. Early August sees the annual Fiddlers and Followers weekend at Rainbow Valley in Cavendish, featuring huge fiddling shows presenting Maritime fiddle champions, step dancers, and great food. And the community of Rollo Bay is the Islands music destination, hosting the Bluegrass and Old-Time Music Festival in early July. Two weeks later, Rollo Bay Fiddlers Festival is held, which has seen regional musicians bending the bows to audiences delight since 1976. In addition, Island Gospel Fest is a daylong festival held at the end of August in Crapaud, which features individuals and groups playing a variety of music from Blue Grass to Contemporary.
Communities and towns across the province celebrate
the uniqueness of their corner of the earth through a
multitude of local festivals. Since 1967,
Kensingtons Community Harvest Festival has been
celebrating and promoting the towns strong sense of
community. The festival is Prince Edward Islands
largest |