Skip to content

Midsummer event a feast for foodies

Evening Powell River Farmers’ Market affair grows in variety and popularity
midsumers
TASTY TREATS: Powell River resident Patrick Kyer enjoys yummy offerings at a previous year’s Midsummer Night’s Feast. The annual all-ages event at Powell River Farmers' Market celebrates the diversity and deliciousness of local summertime food. Peak archive photo

Following tradition around the world, Midsummer’s Eve is held as a celebration of the longest day of the year in mid-June. Not in Powell River. The annual Midsummer Night’s Feast, hosted by Powell River Farmers’ Market, is not held around the time of the summer solstice, but on Monday, August 7.

The date might not align with the sun, but it does with the August long weekend, making the yearly event one of the more popular places to be on BC Day.

“It's our midsummer,” said Powell River Farmers’ Market manager Juhli Jobi. “The market is only open for six months. We usually have more fresh, local food available this time of year. We wouldn't be able to showcase local ingredients in June.”

The feast for the senses is from 4:30-7:30 pm for all ages to wander the market grounds, fill up on food, visit old friends and make new ones, all the while being entertained by Brooks Secondary School’s Take 5 jazz band, which recently won a gold medal in the grade nine to 11 age category at MusicFest Canada.

Foodies will enjoy the sweet and savoury fare that clearly reflects the growing cultural diversity in Powell River, including Mexican, Syrian, Indian and Vietnamese food, as well as good old ice cream, hot dogs and burgers.

Local food vendor Moe Lepitre sells potato tornadoes, the deep-fried spiral-cut potatoes on a skewer that were invented in South Korea.

"We’ve been doing the feast since it started and it just grows," said Lepitre, who has been a vendor at the feast since it began.

She said part of the success of the feast is the evening setting.

"There are more and different food vendors and more people coming," she said.

Midsummer conjures lore of fantasy, mythology and ancient civilizations, and feasting has always been part of celebrations. Within arts and culture, no work is more famously inspired than Shakespeare's popular comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream where forest faeries control human fate. The play has inspired concert overtures, operas, ballets, film and TV.

While there aren’t any pixies at this event, Jobi said the early evening atmosphere is very relaxing, unlike the busy come-and-go weekend markets.

“You don't have people coming with the sole intent of purchasing the most desirable produce and baking,” said Jobi. “There's not a bunch of lineups waiting for the bell to ring.”

The community comes out in strong support for the feast, according to Jobi.

“The grounds are full, but it's a very relaxed environment,” she said. “Everybody is just kind of hanging out and enjoying themselves, and the food and train rides for the kids.”

Jobi said there will also be a silent auction of birdhouses with proceeds going toward a provincially funded program for low-income seniors to attend the weekly farmers’ market for fresh produce, meat and eggs, and for socializing.

“They receive $15 each week from June until September,” said Jobi. “We've been doing this in Powell River for about seven years.” 

Midsummer Night’s Feast is held at the Powell River Farmers’ Market grounds at Padgett and McLeod roads.