Feast at the Beach to give families a local event before school starts

There’s a new event coming to the Lakeland to celebrate the end of the summer.

Feast at the Beach put on by the Cold Lake and District Chamber of Commerce is coming to Kinosoo Beach Aug. 30-31.

It’s a free event to attend with the intention of having entertainment nearby before school starts.

“Our thoughts behind the event was to have kind of a summer wrap up festival that is here in the city,” said Chamber of Commerce president Ryan Lefebvre.

“That weekend is usually the weekend right before school starts. They don’t want to go far. So we thought to provide something that would be different for the area.”

The idea is for people to buy general tickets which can be used at the different cuisines of food trucks on site and at the beer gardens.

A circus act stage show and roaming performers from Indigo Circus are also expected as daytime entertainment for kids.

“The closest thing that we [Chamber of Commerce] used to do for this was the fish fry.”

“But it wasn’t nearly on the scale. This is pretty big,” said Lefebvre.

The musical acts will be announced shortly for the event, but it is expected there will both local talent and music from outside of the Lakeland.

On Friday the event runs from 2pm-10pm and Saturday the hours are lengthened to 11am-10pm.

The inspiration for the event came from fellow chamber member Sherri Buckle, said Lefebvre, when she attended an event south of the border.

“They had attended an event in Spokane, Washington and it was very similar. It’s called Pig out in the Park. It was a very similar model to what we’re doing: a bunch of food vendors, and then entertainment all day. Festival grounds style, you walk around a beer garden, and sample and test a bunch of food,” said Lefebvre.

“That was kind of where our initial idea had come from.”

City support

The Chamber of Commerce hopes to make Feast at the Beach a yearly staple in the community.

The City of Cold Lake supported it with a $10,000 grant.

“It’s going to be a lot of excitement….It’s a great way to segue into kids getting into school,” said Mayor Craig Copeland.

“It’s great that the Chamber is taking the initative to do it. We gave them a grant of $10,000, but it’s well over a $100,000 to put something like that on.”