The following editorial appeared in the December 17 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
If we followed Daniel O’Keefe’s lead, a surprising number of us would be counting down the days to Festivus.
The Reader’s Digest writer and editor invented the mock holiday, slated for yearly celebration on Dec. 23, that features the “Feats of Strength” and the “Airing of Grievances,” activities you normally don’t see at Christmas or during Hanukkah, although those practices might make a good fit with those religious celebrations. Festivus was immortalized 10 years ago tomorrow on a famous episode of the perpetually re-running TV show “Seinfeld,” where O’Keefe’s son was a scriptwriter.
With city hall looking to expand the number of festivals in the Royal City in a bid to boost tourism, maybe we can round up Frank Costanza and go looking for some Festivus poles. Then again, maybe not.
Festivals designed for the early days of winter in Canada are definitely outdoor affairs, like winter carnivals, and Festivus is clearly an indoor activity.
Cutting out four or five months of the year — the realistic winter period — puts limits on what new festivals we can trot out here, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying.
Guelph cannot live on Hillside and Ribfest alone, so big winter gloves thumbs up to the city’s tourism department for spending time this season brainstorming about new festival opportunities to consider as we wait for the last patch of that dirty black snowbank to finally evaporate in the spring sun.
A springtime poppy festival, one of the ideas that’s been bandied about so far, has much credibility, with links to both our horticultural heritage and, of course, to our famous son John McCrae and his immortal poem “In Flanders Fields.” But Ottawa already has its popular tulip festival and we don’t want to be overshadowed.
Councillor Ian Findlay seems to be on the right track when he suggests we capitalize on our agricultural heritage, and his idea for an ice cream festival that would be a nod to our local dairy farmers sounds like a cool family-friendly plan for a hot day.
With no season-long Stratford or Shaw theatre festivals to count on, Guelph should certainly ramp up the number of festive offerings here.
We’d love to hear your ideas for new festivals in the city.