This past weekend I took my family to the Cookstown Wing Ding event, hosted by the Cookstown & District Chamber of Commerce.
This was the first time since 2019 that the event was able to go ahead, due to the pandemic.
The weather was gorgeous: sunny and not too hot; a perfect day to walk around and embrace the charming village of Cookstown. This was probably the largest, festival-type event we have been to in over two years, so it was very exciting (And exhausting! I had to take a two-hour nap when we got home!)
I don't know about anyone else, but getting out and socializing again at large events in a post-pandemic restriction world kind of feels like learning how to ride a bike again --a little awkward, but fine once you get your bearings.
We drove up from Bradford Saturday morning and could see Queen Street was already lined with cars, with the streets filled with people.
The vendor show and kids activities happening behind the Cookstown Curling Club and Library opened at 9 a.m., but the resident yard sales had deal finders out at the crack of dawn.
Eventually, we found parking, and I was overwhelmed with all the activity going on: yard sales on the streets, main street shop tours, bouncy castles for the kids, food trucks, vendors, bands, princesses, face painting, a silent auction, and more. It was all so exciting, especially for the kids.
The first stop for us was the bouncy castles, set up in the corner behind the Cookstown Library. My boys spent a good half hour in there, and had a blast! One of the inflatables was an obstacle course, with a huge slide at the end, which all the kids loved.
Innisfil Fire was set up nearby with their truck and trailer, letting kids hop on to check out their equipment and apparatus. My youngest was in heaven as his new obsession is with emergency services. It was fun for him to see the truck's large wheels and interior. Later in the day, the fire crew was set up on the grass letting kids use the fire hose to put out a makeshift fire made of painted wood pallets.
Innisfil entertainment company Dream Parties had princesses Rapunzel and Elsa singing on the lawn, which attracted all the kids and their families to the area, belting out their favourite Frozen hits.
There was a sea of tents filled with local vendors, selling everything from soaps to jewellery. Many of them told me how nice it was to be back out selling at markets again and getting to interact face to face with customers.
We found a local artist, Leah Farmer of sparkli charli, who makes floral wreaths and paintings of cartoon characters. My husband and sons are huge gamers and ended up buying three of her Pokemon paintings.
After grabbing some ice cream from the ice cream truck, we headed to the face painting booth by Bling Face Painting, where my oldest got a Sonic the Hedgehog design done.
Inside the curling club were more vendors and a silent auction in support of the local Christmas 4 Kids Year-Round charity.
The library had its own table selling books at bargain prices and laser-cut items made from the ideaLab, like signs and coasters. I was so impressed with what they can make at the Hack Lab. I even signed myself up for a class this week to make my own coasters.
My sons had fun running through the 'Tree of Life ' maze in the field, which was commissioned by the Town of Innisfil last year in partnership with the Innisfil ideaLAB & Library, created by local artist and architect, Denis Bolohan, in celebration of Innisfil’s Bicentennial anniversary.
I followed up with organizer Cindy Redmond, who said it was a great day and was pleased with the turnout.
"Wing Ding is always an event that is looked forward to by many. I spoke with all the vendors and they all said they had a great day! Great sales, and lots of traffic," she said. "I think that (with the) long pause due to Covid, everyone was so excited to be back out seeing neighbours, and enjoying seeing all the smiles on everyone's faces."
It was a long day for us, but I was so happy to be able to get out again with the kids at a large community event. Thank you Cookstown & District Chamber of Commerce for putting on such a great event. We can't wait to come back next year.
