With just two weeks to go until Crowfest hits the streets of downtown Chatham, organizers are excited for residents to experience the inaugural event.
Crowfest runs from October 12 to 15 with a wide variety of events happening over the course of the four days.
The activities kick off on Wednesday, October 12 with The Great Crane Escape at 6 p.m. at the Chatham Armoury followed by Dueling Pianos.
On Thursday the Crowfest gala takes place as well as a screening of The Birds at the Capital Theatre.
According to Crowfest Co-Chair Andrew Thiel, Friday will be jam packed with events. King Street West will close at 1 p.m. to allow for vendors and activities along the roadway from 3 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Friday and again on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.
There is also a night market at Tecumseh Park on Friday from 3 p.m. until 11 p.m. Vendors and live entertainment will be at the park again on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m.
Both Friday and Saturday will feature buskers. According to Thiel, the busker acts are coming from around the globe and it is something people will not want to miss.
"Most of the people when they go away from this, they're going to remember the buskers," he said. "The buskers are world-class."
For people wanting to get in the Halloween spirit, a costume contest will take place on Saturday at Tecumseh Park from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.
Theil said it's one of the other events throughout the festival that is highly anticipated.
"It's amazing," he exclaimed. "It's $13,000 that we're giving away for the costume contest. We have people registered as far away as Toronto that are coming down because the top prize in the masters' category is $5,000. It's pretty neat."
To wrap up Crowfest, Busk After Dark is set for 8 p.m. on Saturday at Sons of Kent in Chatham where the buskers will show off their talents once again.
"It's absolutely going to be insane. We're going to have people blowing fireballs and people on 15' pogo sticks, people swallowing swords...You're going to have that at night going with a band playing behind Sons of Kent," Theil explained. "It's going to be insane, it's going to be amazing."
Originally announced in February, 2022 marks the first year for Crowfest and Theil said organizers are hopeful it will become an annual event.
According to Theil, the buzz leading up to Crowfest has been great so far. He believes residents enjoy a major festival being offered during a time there typically isn't as much happening, especially Halloween lovers.
"It's kind of in the middle of everything," he said. "Really the last local festival happens in August...then we don't have anything until the Christmas parades start happening in November. This kind of happens in the middle."
A full schedule and detailed descriptions of events can be found by clicking here.