Brewery serves up beer, live music at Copper Kettle Festival
Each August Creemore Springs Brewery hosts a big street party in celebration of beer, music, food and community. This year’s Copper Kettle Festival is on Saturday, August 24 with a line-up that includes returning favourites and new entertainers.
The day begins at 10 a.m. with two markets – an extended Creemore Farmers’ Market and a makers’ market – and a pre-1987 car show. Sticking with tradition, the Beinn Gorm Highlanders Pipe and Drum Band will kick-off the musical line-up at 11 a.m., parading down Mill Street to the main stage for the opening of the beer garden and the start of the cask competition. Returning for a second year, and doubling in entries, the cask competition is a fun challenge for Creemore Springs brewers and packaging team members who compete to see which team has created the best unique cask-brewed beer. The tapping of the kegs will take place at 11 a.m. and beer token holders will have a chance to try 12 brews and vote on their favourites. The winner will be announced at 4 p.m.
“These are not the traditional styles that Creemore Springs Brewery offers,” said event organizer Heather Harding. “It gives the opportunity for creativity. It’s interactive in that we can share these with our customers and see what they think.”
In addition to children’s activities and brewery tours, there will be free live music on the main stage beginning with Minuscule, followed by Great Lake Swimmers and Cuff the Duke, and The 99s capping off the afternoon.
The 99s are described as “a team of talented musicians unified by dynamic stage presence, a shared love of timeless chart topping hits and their ability to pack the dance floor. With a set list packed of pop, rock and R&B favourites from the 70s through the 00s, it’s as impossible to know what’s coming next as it is to not to shout-sing along to every word.”
On the Creemore Village Green stage, The Sherri Jackson Band is returning, after an engaging performance at last year’s Copper Kettle Festival, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and High Road Pilots, a fun psych-rock/surf-rock band out of Barrie, will perform from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
An extended edition of the Creemore Farmers’ Market is moving into the Village Green and on the street from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A makers’ market will be set up on the east and west side of Caroline Street from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with more than 30 vendors selling their handmade products including pottery, leather work, jewellery, candles, spices, concrete work, signs and more.
Festivalgoers will be able to hitch a ride on a horse- drawn wagon piloted by Robert McArthur between noon and 3 p.m. at the corner of Edward Street West and Mill Street, behind the main stage.
Multiple bars will be open and local food vendors will be out on the street throughout the day.
For a full schedule visit www.creemoresprings.com.
