By Myke Malone,
Huntsville Festival of the Arts director
I can hardly believe we are in the process of planning our ninth annual May Marché.
How time has flown and how much the marché has grown since the first one, nine years ago, when we booked the members’ lounge at the Hidden Valley ski clubhouse. We had three wine companies, one brewery and eight local restaurants offering samplings of their products. We sold 200 tickets and it was a sell-out. Wow, we were pretty impressed!
The following year, we expanded into both rooms at the ski club and hosted a sold-out crowd of 300 people. By year four, due to the growth, we moved the marché to Deerhurst Resort, where we hosted three breweries, 10 vineyards and more than a dozen local restaurateurs. After two years in the Peninsula Ballroom at Deerhurst, we had outgrown the room’s capacity of 450 people. It was time to expand yet again, and we spilled out into the rotunda and grand hallway.
For the past three years, we have been hosting a crowd of 600 people, every ticket sold way before the night of the event. Last year, the marché featured four breweries, 17 vineyards, and 15 local restaurateurs.
While we can no longer grow bigger, we continually strive to add more features to the marché. My co-chair, Ross Kirwin, and I are always looking for something new to spice up the event. We’ve even had cars, jet skis and ATVs on the auction table. We have pulled a few new ideas out of the marché hat for this year as well.
MAN WITH A PLAN: Myke Malone is one of the key organizers of the May 22 fund-raising event, hosted annually to benefit the Huntsville Festival of the Arts and its many endeavors.
The evening will again be hosted by Deerhurst Resort, and it takes place on Friday, May 22, from 7 to 10 p.m. Our ticket price will remain the same, at $50, if purchased before April 24. After April 24, tickets will be $60 (if there are any left by that time).
Buy early or you may have to resort to placing an advertisement in the Forester, as one individual did last year. He offered to pay a premium price for anyone willing to part with two tickets.
The Huntsville Festival of the Arts (HFA) is a registered charity and your support, over the years, has enabled the festival to not only underwrite some incredible performances by some of Canada’s rising artists, but also to support many local arts initiatives such as a scholarship program, theatre funding for Huntsville High School, public school projects and artists’ workshops.
Last year, the HFA was the proud recipient of the Huntsville Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence award for Best Community Organization. The festival is proud of its work in our community and I am proud to not only co-chair the May Marché for the ninth year, but also to be a director of the festival board for my 10th season.
Thank you for your continued support of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, and I look forward to seeing you at the marché.
Marché tickets are available at Robinson’s Independent Grocer, Treasures and Trophies on Main Street, at the Huntsville/Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce office, or through our website www.huntsvillefestival.on.ca. Check out our exciting 2009 summer lineup or look for more stories on our blog at www.trumpeterhfa.blogspot.com.
