For music and memories, for food and for fun for girls and for boys, for moms and for dads and for grand folk, too, family and friends from near and afar will gather in McIvers to Rock the Rattler this weekend. For everyone.
Summer festival goers need not worry, though. The Rattler is a beautiful waterfall to the sea, one of the small north Bay of Islands town's attractive natural wonders, not some silver-tongued devil, though there may well be a figurative few of those around as well. It is a party time, after all.
The schedule for Rock the Rattler — a legacy event of the hugely successful McIvers Come Home Year 2017, which last summer attracted some 1,800 residents and expatriates for the town's first homecoming celebration — launched with a super bingo game Wednesday at the community hall.
Local service groups — including church volunteers, the community improvement club (MCIC) and the Golden Seabreeze 50-plus club — comprise the new McIvers Events Committee organizing team for the festival.
The weekend slate begins after supper on Friday, July 20, with a prize card game and sale of baked goods, beginning 7 p.m. at the seniors club, and continues with an evening showcase of local talent on The Stage at the festival site.
A celebratory release of memory lanterns at 11 p.m. at the seaside venue will be followed by a nightcap performance by the popular Western Connection band.
On Saturday, a big church-sponsored breakfast starting 10 a.m. at the community hall and a soup and sandwich luncheon at the seniors club helps fuel an afternoon of children's activities at the festival site from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The new Janelle Blanchard Memorial Playground is expected to be busy through the weekend.
The evening lineup at the Wade Parsons Memorial Sports Field opens with the well-known Baloney and Tatties duo of Michael Porter and Neil Park at 8 p.m., a two-hour appearance that precedes a fireworks display at 10:30, followed by a show by The Mixed Tapes band to close the on-site festivities.
The regulated food fishery also gains a spot on the festive weekend calendar with a two-day fishing derby prize being made available for catching the biggest cod. Weigh-ins take place from 1 p.m. to 1:30 and from 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The winner will be announced through Facebook online.
Rt. Rev. John Organ, bishop for the Diocese of Western Newfoundland, has the Parish of Cox's Cove and McIvers on his summer schedule this weekend as well.
Morning prayer will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Church of the Holy Epiphany in McIvers, followed by a baptismal service there at 11 o'clock.
An open invitation is extended by St. Nicholas and Holy Epiphany parish priest Rev. Mario Melendez to share in a potluck lunch at the church hall following the 11 o'clock service.
Dave White welcomes your Bay of Islands news and events information at 660-5712, or email at: [email protected].
