Chris Mathieson, Grist Mill manager, reported an extremely busy Sunday as the mill hosted its first Heritage Fall Fair.
“It’s the busiest day this site has seen in a decade,” Mathieson reported Monday, after an estimated 600 people passed through the gate.
The Heritage fair followed another busy concert night at the mill as approximately 70 people attended the Equinox Kitchen party, featuring the music of Jocelyn Pettit and the Pettit Band.
“It was a magical show,” reported Mathieson. Pettit’s energetic Celtic fiddle music captivated the audience. Pettit enjoyed the venue so much herself, that she stayed on to play an encore on Sunday, performing for two and a half hours through the afternoon.
Mathieson was also pleased by the high turnout of families for Sunday’s event, noting the attendees came from all over the province.
“We don’t have a lot of families, usually, so it was good to see them coming back,” Mathieson said, “and I was also surprised to see that a lot of people seemed to be content to just come and ‘hang out’ - we’ll definitely do this again next year, if I’m still here.”
The Grist Mill is currently undergoing a Request For Proposals through the provincial government as the province tries to divest itself of some of its heritage properties.
In addition to a number of vendors who set up on the site Sunday, a petting zoo, heritage games and face painting were but a few of the activities available to youth. Mathieson said the mill also received over 200 entries for the 70 exhibit categories offered for competition. Forty people submitted entries.