No tomorrow for Aylmer’s Yesteryear’s Fest

Aylmer's near-traditional Yesteryear's Fest is no more. On October 4, the board of directors announced an indefinite suspension of the event. As such, the next edition, scheduled for June, 2017, is cancelled.

 

To explain its abandonment, the board points to a lack of resources to organize the festival, the uncertainty of funding from the City and other levels of government, plus a lack of interest from the private sector to sponsor the festival. 

Inaugurated in 2008 to mark Symmes Inn Museum’s 20th anniversary, the event celebrating Aylmer’s colonial past was under the guidance of the Corporation de la Fête d’antan since 2015. The non-profit group organized only one edition, since the 2016 edition was scrapped.

The corporation wanted to take a break for 2016 in order to review and revise the festival, and then come back strong in 2017.  However, there was more bad news to come: the board lost the farm union, l’Union des producteurs agricoles, as a partner, and has been unable to land a substitute major partner.

The event had been considered a success, since it brought between six and eight thousand visitors to Aylmer’s rue Principale over the weekend of the autumn festival, generating considerable economic spinoffs for Old Aylmer businesses.

The corporation will remain active in event-planning for the Symmes Inn Museum.