Months before the first performers stepped onto Sappyfest’s stages, organizers were already preparing for another weekend of music, art and community events.
By Saturday, that work had spread across downtown Sackville. Families gathered for the inaugural Sack Race, visitors wandered through galleries and artist spaces, musicians filled stages and local businesses welcomed festivalgoers moving from one event to the next.
Although each part of the festival looked different, nearly everyone CHMA spoke with described it in similar terms: Sappyfest has become something the community helps create.
For festival organizer Jillian Flemming, opening day is the moment months of work finally become visible.
“Super exciting, and I mean, this is really the culmination of the entire summer for us who have been working on the festival,” Flemming said. “So to see it all coming together is really special.”
While Flemming began working on this year’s festival in May, planning started much earlier. Artist applications opened last September, programming took shape through the winter, and the final week before opening was spent making last-minute adjustments as crews transformed downtown for another festival weekend.
Just a short walk from the main stage, cheers and laughter carried across the park as children and adults lined up together for the inaugural Sack Race. Some competitors stumbled only a few hops into the course while others crossed the finish line to applause. It wasn’t part of the concert schedule, but it reflected another side of Sappyfest — creating opportunities for people to participate, whether or not they came for the music.
Organizer Tegan Stewart said the idea grew out of a conversation about creating something families could enjoy together.
“Steve really was sad that we didn’t have, like, a fun community event with kids . . . and so I was like, ‘Oh, I have to think of something.’ And, well, Sackville and just playing on sack in the sack, yeah, that’s how it came,” Stewart said.
The goal, she said, was simple.
“Yeah, it brings people out together. I also think it’s really silly and it’s nice to have a silly competitive thing. People are very competitive and it’s good to have an outlet. It’s just great to have an event for all ages, too.”
The festival’s community atmosphere carried indoors as well.
Upstairs at the Sackville Legion, visitors drifted from table to table at the annual Zine Fair, flipping through handmade comics, books and prints before stopping to chat with artists about their work. The conversations often lasted longer than the transactions.
For New Brunswick cartoonist Brandon Hicks, those conversations are part of what makes Sappyfest stand out.
“Compared to other zine fests or other fan festival type things I’ve been to, this one is a lot more of a community. People just wanna talk about books, are excited. It’s just artsy. It’s nice,” Hicks said.
Just down the street, Struts Gallery was also welcoming visitors between performances. Coordinator Angie Richard said preparing for Sappyfest never feels like one organization working alone.
“I’d say it’s been about two weeks that there’s a hint of excitement in the air. It really feels like it’s a group project,” Richard said.
That sense of collaboration wasn’t lost on artists visiting from outside of Sackville.
Robin Love, a member of Montreal’s Stone Bonnet Choir, said the atmosphere feels noticeably different from many larger festivals.
Photo: Theodore Ramharack/CHMA.
“It really feels like a community effort and a familial effort. It feels very safe and warm,” Love said.
Her bandmate Nicolas Basque came away with a similar impression.
“It feels like the whole town came together and tried to make it as authentic as possible, and that’s special to me,” Basque said.
By late afternoon, it was difficult to separate the festival from the town itself.
Bridge Street had become a steady stream of people moving between cafés, galleries, food vendors and music venues. Restaurants extended their hours, vendors served long lines of customers and businesses welcomed visitors discovering Sackville for the first time.
Anish Narayanan, owner of Avatar Food Truck, has returned to Sappyfest several times and said festivals like it create opportunities that go beyond entertainment.
“It’s a community coming together. . . nowadays the social life is going down. This kind of festival brings people together. Everybody will come, enjoy the music, some good food, good drinks,” Narayanan said.
A little farther down Bridge Street, Ducky’s Bar owner Luc Poirier said one of his favourite parts of the weekend is watching visitors discover the town itself.
“What I love is seeing all the new people come into town and see what makes Sackville tick. The best part is the new people that are in town seeing what makes Sackville special, and all of the businesses around town are putting on their A-game. So, if you see something you like in Sackville, this is what we’re doing every day,” Poirier said.
Musician Steve Haley has watched Sappyfest evolve over much of its history, missing only one festival in the past 16 years. Looking back, he said what has kept him returning isn’t just the lineup.
“It’s just such a community. Community members making art and celebrating art. It always is full of surprises and magic, and it’s like my favorite time of year,” Haley said.
Twenty-one years after the first Sappyfest, that sense of community is what many of the people behind the festival say keeps bringing them back.
Theodore Ramharack is a graduate of the Broadcast Journalism Program at Fanshawe College and recently completed an internship with CBC News The National.
Originally from Ontario, he has moved to Sackville to join CHMA as a local journalist and is excited to get to know the Tantramar region and share stories from the community.
