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Blueberry Festival cancelled once again, but new event in the works

COVID-related event will meld food and personal stories
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Sudbury Blueberry Festival organizer John Lindsay is seen here with Sud-Berry Bear and Sudbrina in 2019, the last year the traditional version of the festival was held. (File)

Sudbury’s annual Blueberry Festival is cancelled once again this year, but organizers have a new event in the works, one with a COVID-19 twist.

The festival was cancelled, as you can probably surmise, due to continuing pandemic concerns and restrictions. COVID-19 restrictions and concerns also forced the cancellation of last year’s festival, which was replaced with the Blue Is Beautiful event, which invited participants to celebrate blueberries in an artistic way. You can still view those entries here.

So what’s on the menu for the 2021 edition? The Blueberry Festival is melding COVID-19 cuisine with personal COVID-19 stories.

We’ll let them explain.

“The pandemic has presented many challenges, not the least has been the lockdown periods and largely being unable to eat out and creating other situations not previously experienced. This event will give the opportunity to submit ‘at home cooking innovations (COVID Cuisine) enhancing old favourites or new creations during the pandemic for themselves and shut-in family. 

“Also, stories on what was living and working (or not) like over the past many months (COVID Chronicles). These entries will form an historical record for post pandemic remembrances and reflections and will be posted on the Blueberry Festival website.”

While this year’s event is a competition, there will still be prizes for participants, organizers said. People can submit to both aspects of the event.

Entries, whether recipes and/or stories, do not have to have a blueberry theme. 

“The purpose is to discover how creative people have been with food, their baking and cooking experiences, and what different stories of interest, both negative and positive, during this unprecedented period and how this may have changed lives during this time and perhaps into the future.”

Lucky contributors can win Blueberry Heritage Cookbooks and hand-painted Blueberry Festival wine glasses. 

Submissions will be accepted until July 15***. Further information on this event is available on the Sudbury Blueberry Festival Website.

The festival is sponsored by Sudbury Credit Union, Service Canada, the City of Greater Sudbury, Downtown Sudbury BIA and the Sudbury Arts Council.

***The submission deadline has been changed by the festival organizers.


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