By Deborah Mebude
Since 2006, a group of neighbours on Lower Charlotte Street have been working together to organize what has become an iconic annual tradition.
On June 22, 2019, from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m., the MacDonald Gardens Street Party, formerly known as the Charlotte Street Party, will celebrate its fourteenth year.
The MacDonald Gardens Street Party boasts a fancy popcorn stand, an African drumming circle, recorded and live music performances, a kids’wading pool, pedal cars and unicycles, human-powered parade floats, a neighbourhood history information table and much more.
It’s no surprise then,that some 75 to 100 neighbours attend each year.
“It’s a fun way to meet new neighbours, catch up with old friends, and watch children grow up,” says Richard Guy Briggs, who’s been attending and pitching in since 2007.
With so many successful events under their belts, the organizing team has established a tried and true planning process. Made up of six neighbours, Cyriaque Meka Mevoung, Sherry Hornung, Stella Schouten, Carm Sterrazza, Tatianna Vavrova and Ernest Mulvey, the group has been committed to developing and creating a great relationship with the neighbourhood.
Photo: Richard Guy Briggs
“There’s a group that consults with each other and picks the date a couple of months in advance,” says Briggs. “[The team] draws up a task sheet and assigns tasks, makes and distributes posters and flyers, gets the permit, picks up barricades from the city [and] gets rental tables.”
Briggs, who brings the PA system and a “herd of fun bikes” every year, says the annual event has a number of key attractions. In his opinion, however, the things that keep neighbours coming back year after year are the “conversations and smiles.”
And even when temperamental weather events have reared their head, Briggs says nothing has ever quite dampened their shine. “I’ve run back to the house more than once to get a huge tarp to either very temporarily cover stuff while a downpour blew over, or set up a temporary shelter across the roadway to address longer rainy events. Weather can be a challenge, but even that brings people together.”
On Murray Street between Beausoleil Drive and Nelson Street, a similar event has been taking place for about a decade. The Murray Street Block Party, organized primarily by a group of friends on the street, is held in August of every year and creates a similar sense of community participation.
Though the original organizers have moved away, those that have since moved to the street have carried on the tradition of hosting the event annually.
For these organizers, planning begins in the late spring each year, as neighbours and local churches are invited to pitch in through fundraising opportunities or to provide donations.
The block party features a halal-friendly barbeque, a cotton candy machine, a bike tune-up station, a yard “sale” in which volunteers lay out free clothes and household items, face painting, activities including skateboarding and basketball, live music, including a hip hop performer, a dance battle and story-telling by members of the community.
One of the organizers, who has led planning for the past two years, says neighbours have begun to look forward to the event as a key part of their summer activities each year, with about 200 participants coming and going throughout the day.
This year, the Murray St event will take place on August 17, 2019, from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., and those throughout the Lowertown community are welcome to attend.
Back on Charlotte Street, Stella Schouten, who has been on the main organizing team since the onset of the MacDonald Gardens Street Party, says that one of the most difficult things about planning can be working around unknowns, “I would say that the greatest challenge is to get performers.We have an open stage. We rely on our guests to perform, and we’ve had excellent singers, rock bands, jugglers and drummers. But we never know in advance what to expect.”
Still, she sees the value of creating space for any member of the community to take the stage, and says that the process of putting the street party together has become less difficult as time has progressed.
“Planning of the street party has become easier over the years,” Schouten says, adding that the rewards of the day keep the team motivated year after year. “The street party was started when our kids were very young. They are now in their late teens and twenties but still enjoy the street party. We have talked about passing on the torch to younger families [or] parents. However, we continue to organize because I think we are all a little proud of the success and accomplishments.”
As for advice for neighbours on other streets looking to get their own block parties going, Schouten says to just get started. “For anyone starting a street party, I would suggest to get together with a group of good friends, make sure you delegate and the rest will work itself out,” says Schouten. “It is a lot of fun, and we look forward to it every year!”